Iowa Government Shutdown: Is this really the Republican plan?

State Senator Joe Bolkcom

Statement by Senator Joe Bolkcom, chair of the Ways and Means Committee and member of the Senate Appropriations Committee

“Governor Branstad, your reckless rhetoric has helped bring Iowa to the point of fiscal crisis. This weekend, Senator Bill Dix of Shell Rock, the top Senate Republican on budget issues, suggested that Republicans should simply give up on budget negotiations.”

Senator Dix said:

‘I believe that there are sufficient resources that were allocated a year ago to get to January 1,” Dix says, “in which case the next legislature, after this November election, could make a determination at that point of how to supplementally approve resources for the balance of that year.

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“Governor, we need you to help stop a politically-driven Iowa government shutdown that would devastate investor confidence in the Iowa economy, create turmoil at Iowa’s schools and universities, and create needless panic among Iowa’s seniors and families.”