Governor Terry Branstad wants the State of Iowa to adopt a two year budget. The Democrats in the Senate are against the idea and plan to send an annual budget to the Branstad instead. If they do, Branstad has vowed to veto it. The price for this political gridlock will be paid by school districts and countless state and local governments – Iowans will be the losers. Both sides are so blinded by vitriolic political scorekeeping they are unable to see the opportunity of compromise sitting within comfortable reach.
Candidates for the General Assembly often campaign on a platform of making government work better for the people it is intended to serve. Efficiently delivering the services people need and creating an environment to foster individual freedom and prosperity are at the center of most winning election efforts. However, after taking their seats, most legislators generally spend their time dividing up the spoils of government and delivering symbolic oversized checks to prove their ability to bring money home. There is precious little time to think deeply about government’s mission.
Pols Need to Cease Drawing Lines in the Sand and Start Finding Solutions
The annual squabble for funds makes for bad government because every year the partisan wrangling over appropriations dominates the debate, creates a climate of uncertainty overshadowing policy decisions and, most important, allows legislators to position themselves as champions who fought for their people when all they may have done was score a few bucks for a community center.
A longer budget setting process would allow government workers to spend more time doing the job of government and less trying to preserve their funding sources. More important, the expanded budget process would allow lawmakers to take a longer view of what and how government should do and less on the political gamesmanship of budget gotcha. And, that is why they resist the idea. It is much easier to have Kinko’s print big checks and pose for photos than it is to establish and advocate for ways to improve government.
Governor Branstad has been busy drawing lines in the sand since he returned to office. Most of these lines involve spending. For instance, Branstad decided early on that Iowa’s schools should not receive any new money this year. Since then, state revenue predictions are up and the long-term economic picture has improved. Yet, Branstad is trapped behind his hard-nosed 0% line.
A compromise on the two-year budget could provide a political escape route for both the Democrats and Branstad. Branstad could claim a two-year budget provides him confidence to agree to a 2% increase for schools and Democrats could claim that locking in two years of 2% allowable growth for schools gives them confidence Iowa’s schools will continue to thrive. Both sides could claim victory and Iowans would get progress instead of stalemate.
The budget compromise does not have to be limited to the length of the budget and school dollars, but they are good places to start. Democrats and Republicans need to worry less about blocking the other side’s initiatives and more time finding ways to improve government. Placing the budget on a longer cycle would provide an opportunity to do so. Sure, a lot of the mystery and hysteria of the annual budget fight would dissipate, but we can find enough manufactured intrigue on reality TV these days. Let’s leave it there.
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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.
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