DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa lawmakers are starting to focus on a spending plan in the last month of this year's legislative session.
The Iowa House has not yet introduced a proposal while Senate Republicans are calling for a roughly $8 billion budget, which is slightly less than Governor Kim Reynolds plan ($8.1 billion).
The Senate plan would increase spending for education, health care and public safety, but would also focus on tax cuts.
Democrats say the Republican plan does not do enough to help people hurt by the pandemic.
The Republican proposal includes a $195 million increase in additional spending over the current budget - $80 million for education ($55 million for K-12, $25 million for higher education), about $98 million for health care, $13 million for public safety and roughly $4 million for the Department of Corrections.
It also focuses on using state money to phase in an elimination of the estate tax and reduce property taxes by $100 million. In addition, Senate Republicans are proposing to fully implement a 2018 tax cut by eliminating its requirement that state revenues grow by 4 percent.
The Senate Republican plan does not include money for Governor Reynolds proposal to spent $150 million annually over the next three years on rural broadband.
Lawmakers must craft a budget between now and the close of the legislative session on April 30th that will go into effect for the 2022 fiscal year beginning July 1st.