Mike Gronstal (file photo)
The top Democrat in the legislature says Republican Governor Terry Branstad has sparked distrust and made reaching state budget deals in 2016 difficult.
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal points back to Branstad’s June veto of 56 million dollars that legislators of both parties set aside for public schools. Branstad said his staff had made it clear to legislators that he would take that action.
During a forum yesterday hosted by the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Gronstal indicated he called Branstad, to say that wasn’t true. Gronstal said when Branstad repeated the same assertion the following week, it’s hard for him to figure out if the governor is “just that forgetful or whether he chose to lie.”
A spokesman for the governor has dismissed Gronstal’s statement as “D-C-style partisan politics.”