New House leaders look to cut 'several hundred million' from state budget

DES MOINES — Newly named Iowa House Republican leaders said Monday they plan to reopen the current state budget when they take power in January with an eye on cutting “several hundred million dollars” slated to be spent by June 30.

“We’re going to look for opportunities to reduce spending in the current year’s budget and we’ll be doing that on day one,” said Rep. Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, who was elected to be the next House speaker by the incoming 60-member GOP majority. “I think there is several hundred million dollars in the current year’s budget of marginal or no value to Iowans.”

Along with naming Paulsen the next House speaker, the GOP caucus elected Rep. Linda Upmeyer, R-Garner, as the first woman to serve as the chamber’s majority floor leader. Two women previously have held the post of speaker pro tempore.

Paulsen said the message his caucus received from voters in the Nov. 2 election was that Democrats who held full control of state government spent too much money and its time to scale back government. He said the list probably would include ongoing Gov. Chet Culver’s Power Fund initiative and a number of other proposed cuts that GOP legislators previously offered but were rejected by majority Democrats.

Republicans currently are pegged to hold a 60-40 majority in the Iowa House when the 84th General Assembly convenes in January, while Democrats hold a slight majority of 26-24 with at least two outcomes pending official vote canvasses later this month. Democrats entered last week’s election with a 32-18 Senate majority and 56-44 edge in the House.

House Republicans’ call for slashing current-year spending was immediately applauded by Governor-elect Terry Branstad, who called the proposal to reopen the fiscal 2011 budget “a great idea.”

“Certainly, that’s something we feel strongly about as well, and so we’re very supportive of their interests in trying to find savings right off the bat in this budget,” Branstad said in an interview.

Last month Paulsen requested Culver instruct state department directors to freeze all discretionary state spending pending a budget review by lawmakers when they convene Jan. 10. Paulsen said he was concerned the current budget is built on more than $700 million in one-time funding sources, but Culver administration officials said the governor did not have the authority to impose a freeze on program funding unless the state had a budget deficit and current projections call for the state to end the fiscal year June 30 with a sizable surplus.

Paulsen said he was disappointed by the response, saying “I took it as a signal that Gov. Culver wanted to continue spending money at the same rate.”

The speaker-elect said the message he took away from the 2010 election results was that voters viewed the past two years as “too much government too fast, too much spending, too much debt, and people want to go back to work.”

Paulsen said his caucus did not set a specific timetable on approving a resolution to amend the constitution by defining marriage as only between one man and one woman but he predicted it would be “sooner rather than later.”

The speaker-elect said he expected the new House Republican majority to face a learning curve since about a third of the 60 representatives will be new members and only four of the new House leadership team previously served in the majority.

Along with electing Paulsen as speaker and Upmeyer as majority leader, House Republicans named Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton, as House speaker pro tempore, Rep. Erik Helland, R-Johnston, as House majority whip, and Reps. Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada, Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna, Renee Schulte, R-Cedar Rapids, and Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, as assistant majority leaders.

Democrats in the House and Senate are slated to conduct their initial caucuses and leadership elections next week.