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(Des Moines, IA) -- With three weeks until the Iowa legislative session is scheduled to end, conversations are shifting towards the state's budget. Governor Kim Reynolds submitted her proposals in January, but legislators hold hearings throughout the session and come up with their own targets. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley (R-New Hartford) explains the process and where they're at.
"Kind of getting to the point of okay, as a budget subcommittee what are the pieces we really want to see a part of that?" Grassley says. "From there, we typically will go and say alright, these are the priorities that our budget subcommittees have. What's the budget target gonna look like for each one of those individually. So, we're getting to the point where we're kind of putting that puzzle together."
Although the House hasn't issued a proposal yet, both the Governor and the Iowa Senate are proposing $9.4 billion in spending. But in March, the state's Revenue Estimating Conference estimated the state will take in $8.5 billion this year, leaving a roughly $900 million shortfall. The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency says the state has roughly $6 billion in reserve funds. The conversations also come amid uncertainty at the federal level, but Grassley says that hasn't changed the way they're thinking about Iowa's budget to this point.
"We're going to continue to work off of the estimate that we were given," Grassley says. "I think that as a state we've done a good job of making sure that we leave ourselves a cushion with an ending balance, with the Taxpayer Relief Fund, having the rainy day in the surplus full...that's why we've budgeted the way we have the last several years.
Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner (D-Iowa City) says it's not responsible to dip into these funds.
"When we look at the budget overall what we see, whether it's the governor's budget or the Senate budget targets, is spending more money than is coming in," Weiner says. "That's going to be a concern as we work through those bills."
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst (D-Windsor Heights) proposes lowering the amount of money spent on the state's Educational Savings Account program, a Republican priority the last few years.
"We are saying that too much money is being spent on school vouchers," Konfrst says. "And that is a big problem with our state budget."
Earlier this week the Republican supermajority agreed on public K-12 educational aid, which Republicans say will take up 44% of the next year's budget. The rest must be complete before the legislature can adjourn for the year.