Legislators: " Clean House!"

Republican legislators say democrat governor Tom Vilsack needs to “clean house” in his Department of Management. Republican House Speaker Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs says Management Director Cynthia Eisenhauer said two weeks ago the state’s last fiscal year ended in the black — then reversed herself and announced on Friday the state had a 59-million-dollar deficit. Siegrist says the governor should be ashamed. House republican leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says Eisenhauer either intentionally misled lawmakers, or else she doesn’t know how to do her job. The Republican legislators may file a lawsuit challenging Vilsack’s decision to use money from the state’s cash reserve to fill the 59-million-dollar hole in the budget. Vilsack says legislators shouldn’t be making “partisan personal attacks” at a time when almost every state is struggling with the effects of a national economic downturn.