Gronstal: Tax deadlock shouldn’t prevent state from paying bills

Speaking at the Statehouse news conference Thursday, Senator Majority Leader Mike Gronstal said legislative disagreements should not prevent the state from paying its bills.  Supplemental funding for community colleges, public safety and other urgent items are caught up in disagreements over House Republican demands to create a giant fund for unspecified later tax relief.

Gronstal said that next week the Senate would begin taking up specific, urgent items blocked by the lack of agreement in the conference committee.

Here is a transcript of Gronstal’s remarks:

“As you all know we are struggling through a conference committee where we certainly have some disagreements with the House. They’re insisting on a separate slush fund set aside for tax cuts for gosh, we don’t know who they intend to give it to, but it certainly looks like its big corporations and that’s their main focus in this conference committee.

“Caught in the crosshairs is a program that’s a constitutional responsibility for the state of Iowa and that is to provide what’s called indigent defense. That’s legal defense. We are required under the Constitution to provide that defense for young people and adults that are in trouble with the law. We have to do it.

“Those services are being provided out there by private attorneys across the state of Iowa, both the attorneys that the state hires but also private attorneys across the state of Iowa. And we’re not paying our bills.

“They’re caught in our disagreement and we think it’s time to set that piece aside, the piece on the indigent defense, about 18-19 million dollars and provide that money. So next week we’ll bring out of Appropriations Committee a separate appropriation for that issue alone to try and get it back to where we’re paying those people.

“They’ve provided the services. They’ve had the costs involved and we’re just not paying our bills. And that’s wrong for the state of Iowa not to pay its bills.”

Gronstal’s comments begin at 3:10.