Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor and Homeland Security advisor told officials from across the state they did a good job responding to last year’s storms and flooding, but will face a new challenge this year that’s on paper. Patty Judge told those at the Governor’s Homeland Security Conference today, it will be tougher to find the money to work into their budgets.
“Years of reckless spending on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C., finally caught up with everyone, including Iowa. And as many communities across the state were trying to pick up the pieces from the floods and the storms, the worst economic recession since the great Depression, hit Iowa,” Judge said. Judge says the situation doesn’t look to improve anytime soon.
Judge says: “Governor Culver and I know those of you have a big job to do. We know that you are already working day and night and you are short of the resources you need. We have also seen a trend in federal grant funding that affords us fewer dollars to accomplish the tasks at hand. Unfortunately, I have to tell you, this is not going to get better right away.” Judge says they will have to adapt to leaner budgets.
“We are going to have to continue to do more with less. And I know that this is just one more challenge that we are going to meet head-on together,” Judge says. She says the last three years have been ones of enormous change for the state, but Judge says the disasters have taught everyone that they need to be resilient. Over 200 people from across the state are attending the sixth annual Homeland Security Conference.