NEWS

January 03, 2011
Fraise: Legislature to focus on budget

The budget is going to be the main focus on the Senate side of the Iowa Legislature when it comes into session on Jan. 10. State Sen. Gene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, said the budget isn’t as bad off as the Legislature thought it would be at the end of the last year.

He also believes the Republicans have made it sound worse than it actually is. But that’s not to say there won’t be plenty of work to do. He said some federal stimulus money was used to fill some budget holes last year. That money won’t be available this year, so some work needs to be done to fill those gaps. He said the incoming governor, Terry Branstad, criticized current Gov. Chet Culver for making a 10 percent across-the-board budget cut last year, but Branstad has said he wants to cut government by 15 percent.

Fraise said that leaves him scratching his head a bit. He said he doesn’t know if Branstad means state government should be cut back or government at all levels. Another item Fraise wants to see protected that the next governor seems willing to cut is preschool. Fraise said he talked to a person the other day whose daughter just received her doctorate.

The person told Fraise that preschool was an important step in her education. “One of the most important things is to get them in preschool,” Fraise said, “So it’s a big concern.” The senator said Branstad wants to cut funding for preschool, which means people would pay more out of pocket and not everyone can afford to do that.

Fraise said he isn’t personally going into this session with an agenda, but he wants to see the Highway 61 bypass of Fort Madison completed by the end of this year and watch the new Iowa State Penitentiary rise out of the ground at its new site. For the past few years, there has been an effort to raise the gasoline tax by 8 cents per gallon. This year some at the county level are calling for a 10 cent per gallon hike.

Fraise said there is the possibility some sort of increase will get passed this year because there has been support in the Legislature the past two years, but Culver has refused to sign any legislation that raises the gas tax. Fraise said he wasn’t sure where Branstad stands on the issue. He did say there needs to be more revenue coming in to fix roads.

Some of the interstate highways are showing their age and the state is going to have to spend a lot of money on them soon. More fuel efficient cars is good progress, Fraise said, but it hurts the revenue coming in through gas taxes. He said with the way the gas companies bounce the price around, something like a 5 cent hike shouldn’t be that much of problem with consumers.

Fraise is upset with the ousting of the Iowa Supreme Court justices. He said there was no way they would be impeached. “That is an absolutely dead issue,” he said. He said those three Republicans that said they were going to get impeachment started aren’t going to be able to get anything accomplished on that front.

The ousting of the judges has destroyed the judicial branch of government because the judiciary can’t be focused on popular opinion when they are doing their jobs, Fraise said. “I would hope the general public wises up and says ‘What have we done?’” Fraise said. He said it reminds him of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev quote that said the USSR wouldn’t have to destroy us because we would destroy ourselves from within.

The court, Fraise said, made a ruling to follow the Iowa Constitution that says no class of people can be discriminated against. “If you discriminate against that group, then who’s next?” he said. “It borders on ridiculous.”

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