The Republican State Auditor finds serious problems in democrat Governor Tom Vilsack’s proposed state budget. Auditor Dick Johnson says the Governor exceeds the state’s spending limit by 50-million dollars. House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says the G-O-P will have to go back to the drawing board and cut the 50-million dollars.House Speaker Brent Siegrist, a republican from Council Bluffs, says republicans aren’t happy with the governor’s request to finance a number of state programs out of a special “infrastructure” fund. Siegriest says they won’t stand for the “switcheroo.”Vilsack’s spokesman, Joe Shannahan, says the G-O-P legislators are playing politics He says they went to the only republican state office holder to review the governor’s budget, so they could find something wrong.Shananhan says the non-partisian Legislative Fiscal Bureau found Vilsack’s budget meets the state’s spending limitations. And Shannahan says the Auditor didn’t review the whole budget before issuing his opinion. Johnson has in the past given critical reviews of ex-Governor Terry Branstad’s spending proposals, and both are republicans.
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