AMES, Iowa – May 17, 2012 – The Iowa Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration and Illinois Department of Transportation,...
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State legislators are seeking suggestions from Iowans on ways to make state government agencies and departments more efficient and effective. Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, and Sen. Staci Appel, D-Ackworth, co-chairs of the Legislature’s State Government Reorganization Commission, are seeking public input into seven budget areas: administration and regulation; agriculture and natural resources; economic...
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The chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court today put Judicial Branch employees on notice that employee layoffs are in the offing. Chief Justice Marsha Ternus issued a memo to judicial officers and judicial branch staff that “a reduction in our workforce is unavoidable” given that 95 percent of the court system budget is...
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State budget managers Thursday began looking for programs, positions and places to eliminate or reduce to meet Gov. Chet Culver’s immediate call for a uniform 10-percent budget cut to save $600 million. “We cannot wait. We cannot delay. We have to act,” Culver told a Statehouse news conference in ordering the immediate across-the-board cut...
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Gov. Chet Culver said Wednesday all options will be on the table as he addresses a $415 million revenue shortfall that will force spending cuts of up to 8.4 percent this fiscal year. “We’re going to have to make deep cuts,” the governor said a short time after a revenue estimating panel slashed projected...
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Former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad is taking another step to a possible 2010 run for governor today by forming an exploratory campaign committee. Richard Schwarm, a Lake Mills lawyer, former Iowa GOP chairman and long-time Branstad friend, said the purpose of the “Terry Branstad for 2010 Committee” is “to continue to explore the availability...
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Budget managers are anxiously awaiting word Wednesday on how big of a funding cut they will have to absorb over the coming months to bring state spending in line with recession-ravaged revenues. “It’s going to be terrible,” said Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, co-chair of the House-Senate health and human services budget subcommittee, who...
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A key legislative leader today said a film tax credit program has to show a cost-benefit to the state in creating high-skill, high-wage jobs or it has a 50-50 chance of surviving. Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he expects lawmakers to take a hard look at the film incentives and other...
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More bad economic news today for Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and state budget-makers. The latest monthly revenue report issued by the Legislative Services Agency shows state tax collections plummeted by 19.2 percent – marking the eighth straight monthly decline and increasing the likelihood that the governor will have to order an across-the-board budget cut...
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DES MOINES — Republican gubernatorial hopefuls are sharpening their criticism of Democratic Gov. Chet Culver’s mishandling of what one GOP candidate is calling “filmgate” and other issues important to Iowans. Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, said the ongoing and unfolding fiasco over the state’s film, television and video tax credit program – which he called...
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DES MOINES – Iowa’s lottery chief said Tuesday he believes his enterprise can buck national downward trends for gambling with stable profits this year and a slight increase in fiscal 2011. Lottery CEO Terry Rich also told Iowa Lottery Board members that federal legislation could pass soon that would legalize Internet gambling – a...
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