Legislators are haggling over a handful of budget issues as they prepare to complete work for the year, perhaps sometime this week. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson says the G-O-P is “bending over backwards” to strike deals with Governor Tom Vilsack, who’s a democrat.Republicans who control the Legislature have a budget draft that’s about 20-million dollars less than what Governor Vilsack wants. Iverson says he’s not drawn a “line in the sand” — yet. He says they’re about to the point though where they will have to just “go and do it.”Senate Democrat Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs has this prediction of how the 2000 Iowa Legislature will end. “slowly, badly.” He says it’s still “pretty messy right now.”Gronstal says Republicans have mis-placed priorities when it comes to the state budget. He says the budget is being balanced on the backs of students in the state. Republicans reject the idea they’ve given shabby treatment to the state’s education establishment, pointing to sizable spending increases for K-through-12 schools and community colleges as well as the financing of major projects at the state-supported Universities. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says “if you ask for a dollar and only get 50 cents, it’s called a cut in government.” Iverson says that’s “about a phony as phony is.”
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