Governor Chet Culver has used his item veto authority to pare millions from the state budget plan drafted by his fellow Democrats in the legislature. Culver cut out a proposal to set aside $4 million in each of the next six years for the state’s Community Attractions and Tourism grant program.

Culver says the level of state funding for the program should be reevaluted each year. Legislators also tried to set aside three quarters of a million for year two of the Volga River State Recreation Area project and another half million for the Levi Carter Lake project’s second year. Culver says both those projects already have state financing for their first-year and second-year funding levels can be decided next year.

Culver rejected the idea of setting up a $1 million annual state appropriation for the World Food Prize. That’s the award created and financed by trucking magnate John Ruan — a sort of Nobel Prize for food.

Finally, Culver said legislators had already set aside millions for a project that’s creating a park directly west of the state capitol so the governor axed another $120,000 legislators wanted to spend — to buy two decorative planters.

Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports. :53 MP3