Governor says state will have to shut down some programs to meet cuts

Governor Tom Vilsack says if Republicans want to cut 35-million in this year’s state budget, they’d better identify which state services should be shut down. The G-O-P suggests an eight-and-a-half million-dollar cut to the Department of Human Services, the agency that investigates child abuse reports. If that cut’s enacted, Vilsack says mistakes made because the state doesn’t have enough child abuse investigators will be on legislators’ hands. Vilsack, who’s a democrat, says it’s time for Republicans to quit trying to dictate and instead, sit down to work things out. Vilsack says neither he nor Republicans should draw a line in the sand. Vilsack says the warring sides should opt for a bipartisan compromise. Vilsack made his comments during taping of I-P-T-V’s “Iowa Press.”