• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Politics / Govt / State gov’t reorganization may be bipartisan hallmark of ’10 session

State gov’t reorganization may be bipartisan hallmark of ’10 session

January 14, 2010 By O. Kay Henderson

A sweeping state government reorganization effort is getting bipartisan support, even though details of the package are still being crafted. 

A 10-member panel of legislators from both parties started discussing ideas this past summer and next Wednesday a Senate committee will consider a bill to implement many of the changes being proposed.  Senator Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, has been part of the on-going discussion.

“It’s amazing what happens when a budget is so tight,” Feenstra says.  “All of a sudden, everybody comes to the table and says, ‘Where can we make a difference?'”

Feenstra says it’s been an “exciting” process that could yield up to $150 million in savings in the next state budgeting year.

“When we can reduce the number of commissions and reduce the number of government workers, I think it’s a good thing for all Iowans,” Feenstra says. 

Democratic leaders in the legislature are reluctant to put a price tag on potential savings at this point.  House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque, puts it this way:  “the more the better.”

“We really don’t want to go out and say it’s ‘X’ amount of dollars and then find out we were a little bit high or a little bit low.  We really want people to see legitimatly what those savings are going to be,” Murphy says.  “And quite frankly, we think we’ve got a very bipartisan bill that we will have, hopefully, broad bipartisan support for…so I think it’s something that could be one of the major pieces of legislation we get done this year to make things work more efficiently and save taxpayers a lot of money.”

Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs says there may be some “legitimate” objections raised about some of the proposals. 

 “We don’t have things priced out yet…so we may in fact think we had a really good idea…that frankly doesn’t save you hardly any money and in that case,  we might decide there’s a piece or two of this that we’re not going to do,” Gronsal says. “But overall…what we’re telling everybody involved in this is the less we accomplish in terms of savings, the more we have to cut budgets.” 

Gronstal says he’s been telling legislators that saying, “No,” to government reorganization is not an option this year.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Politics / Govt Tagged With: Chet Culver, Democratic Party, Legislature, Republican Party, Taxes

Featured Stories

Governor signs Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard into law

Jury returns guilty verdict in shooting death of State Trooper

A haboob, a dust storm black out, hits northwest Iowa

Summit has easements for 20% of carbon pipeline route through Iowa

Morel mushroom hunters on hold without warmer conditions

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa’s Huckstorf garners national award

Iowa Special Olympics Summer games set to open in Ames

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC