House Speaker downplays budget trouble

The legislature’s leading Republican is downplaying the state’s budget woes.House Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, says everybody is making a much bigger deal of the dilemma than they really ought to. Lawmakers are set to convene the 2004 Legislative session on Monday. Rants says there are difficult decisions ahead, but lawmakers will make them and balance the budget. He says lawmakers shouldn’t lose sight of the higher goal of finding ways to grow Iowa’s economy. In the past year, policymakers have had to cut the state budget significantly due to an unexpected downturn in state tax revenues, and the picture for the next state budgeting year isn’t much brighter. Corporate taxes, as an economic indicator, are still lagging far below expectations.