House Democrats are committed to a fiscally responsible, balanced state budget that doesn’t forget the needs of hard working, middle class families. The troubled national economy and the devastating storms that hit Iowa last summer have caused a state budget shortfall that will require significant cutbacks and difficult choices.
We have created Open Budget Iowa to bring more transparency to the budget process and give the people of Iowa a direct voice in crafting a balanced, responsible state budget. We need your ideas and suggestions to find efficiencies and new cost savings in the budget.
Below you will find individual “blog posts” with information about Governor Culver’s budget recommendations this year as well as detailed information about each of the seven appropriations areas that we use to craft our budget.
Please use this information to inform your comments. You can add your comments to any of the posts below. We welcome your input!
20% salary reduction for all athletic coaches at the three regent universities. Not sure how much the “lesser” sports coaches are paid but between basketball, wrestling, and football, millions could be saved and they would still have a lavish income. Plus what better way to demonstrate commitment to their respective University?
Too many wages are being wasted for duplication of duties. A thorough review needs to be done on who does what and if some waste can be eliminated at the administration building for the DOT in Ames. The road crews are at a bare minimum, but the administration building has people making $100,000 annually for jobs that would only pay around $40,000 in the private sector. These people don’t even have the degrees that the private sector would require, but they just keep raking in the easy wages and no one seems to be noticing.
Before you go headlong into cutting personnel and programs, why don’t you begin in your own house. Take a close look at the compensation package each legislator receives. For a 100 day a year job the pay is way above the minimum wage. And don’t forget about the $86.00 per day expense account, the mileage to and from home (how many of us get paid to drive to work???) and of course all the fringe benfits (insurance, retirement, etc). It’s ironic that 150 people who work 100 days require such a large staff of secretaries, lawyers, and fiscal people to do their work for them. It doesn’t appear that the legislature took the 8% cut they are requiring the other agencies to take.
Here’s a news flash…maybe we don’t need 150 legislators. Instead since there are 8 judicial districts elect three legislators from each district (2 house members, 1 senate member and then elect one statewide person). Why do we need 99 counties. Let’s try 8 counties.
My advice…take the log out of your own eye before you pick the speck out of others. Remember…every cut you make affects real people. Real people who pay taxes.
Seriously, it’s not that hard to have a balanced budget. We just need to prioritize. First pick the items that need to funded that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. State Employee Salary, EDUICATION, Infrastructure, utility bills. Things like this get all the money that they need. Not all the money that we think they can skate so we can save money for other things and pet projects, ALL THEY MONEY THAT IS NEEDED. Why? Students need books, Teachers need Pay (More really), and roads need to be safe. There is a lot of money and scrimping on some things should never need to be done.
With all this money we are throwing around on the important things then how are we going to save money. Once again, not that hard. We’ve budgeted how much out of how much; let’s do what we can with the rest. If we don’t have 10 million dollars for an anti-smoking campaign, then we don’t do one this year. If there’s not enough money for gamblers help line, then maybe we have to give them less money. If were struggling so bad, maybe the Governor can fly coach on his trips. Also look at how many people some of our projects impact. Is 6.5 million for the Gamblers Treatment Fund really worth closing down a library? And yes libraries are important, some people on this message board may think otherwise because they can afford to buy their own books and internet, others can’t.
We need to stop cutting back on necessities and ask ourselves if we really need to spend millions on frivolities. Just because we spent money in the past doesn’t mean we still need it.
There is no need to increase taxes or put up tolls on the roads. We just need prioritize. Sure cutbacks will need to be made and that sucks, but if they are need well then they are needed. If we can agree that education is more important than “please quit smoking” flyers, then that’s what has to go.
Thank you for this opportunity.
1. Delay all beautification or parks improvement projects. These are luxuries and not necessities.
2. Enact legislation to ‘turn down the heat’ in public schools and buildings. As a volunteer, I noticed immediately how overly warm the learning environment is kept. Cooler temperatures help reduce lethargy and improve brain function. If families have to be more fiscally and environmentally responsible, why don’t our public systems? 68 degrees is a perfect temperature and would save a tremendous amount in operational funds.
3. Demand more oversight of public works employees. I can’t tell you the number of times through the years I’ve driven past a road works project and observed one person doing the work while 5 or 6 stand around watching. THIS IS WASTEFUL. Streamline our current systems and make every minute and dollar count. More will be accomplished with the smaller amount of funds available.
4. Stop hiring outside firms to ‘evaluate the situation’. Many citizens are more then willing to donate their time and expertise in order to save money for their municipalities. Start tapping into a completely unused source and save the tax dollars for essential services.
5. Streamline our school systems. There is an unbelievable amount of waste in our public schools. I see it. My children see it. It does not set a good example.
a) A good place to start would be decreasing the school week to 4 days and lengthening the school day. My daughter has been attending both high school and college for the last two years. She still has enough energy to work two jobs. We severely underestimate the stamina of our children. It would also prepare them for the longer work schedules in adulthood and teach them to make better use of their time.
b) Get rid of the frills and get back to the basics of education. Too much money goes into sports programs. This has to stop. We are promoting an atmosphere that is not indicative of quality education and excludes the participation of the majority of students for the sake of a few athletically inclined individuals. These programs do not pay for themselves when all expenses are included and promote exclusionism not teamwork despite what representatives try to foist off on the public.
c) Get creative and productive in using the numerous volunteers instead of sitting them down at a table to cut out objects for student projects. Many of us have professional skills that can be valuable in the classroom if only we had the respect of educators. But instead, those valuable skills seem to be a threat and go ignored while we are given menial tasks that frankly the students should be performing to enhance their skill sets. Develop programs that encourage professionals to come into the classroom and teach, freeing teaching staff to complete tasks they would be forced to take home, interrupting their personal time. This would help decrease the ‘burn-out’ rate and keep our educators more focused on the process and excited about their jobs.
6. Consider an across the board cut in salaries before removing any employees from the payroll including all government employees. This is far less painful then the domino affect seen with job loss. The psychological impact can also take a heavy toll on those left to ‘carry on’, decreasing productivity. Every legislator should have already agreed to a cut before going to other public workers and citizens asking for concessions. If you aren’t willing to do your part, how can you possibly ask anyone else to sacrifice? Most of you are private business owners or have second incomes. Set an example and prove you really care and aren’t billowing hot air.
7. As with public schools, change our government to a 4-10 hour day work week. This would make government more accessible to the public with a change in hours. People would not be forced to take time off work to meet current operating schedules. It would save huge amounts in operating budgets for heating/cooling facilities and cleaning costs. It’s more eco friendly and workers would have decreased fuel costs as well as a three day weekend, enhancing their personal lives making them more productive on the job.
Maybe it is finally time to consolidate the 99 counties!
Hire more people with less degrees and more common sense.They work cheaper and will still get the jobs done.
Lets face it, the majority of Iowa school districts would be considered small. Many people have mentioned consolidating school districts, which I think most agree. But what about the number of these small schools that have grade school and high school Principals? Some even have middle school Principals. Are 2 or 3 Principals needed in these school districts? Also, can’t one of these same people do the Superintendent jobs? In the small community(2k people) that I live in, the Principals(we have 3) are making 65-75k a year and the Superintendent is over 120k. This in a district with the average class size being 50. There is around 345k in four positions. If we let one person do the Principal & Superintendent jobs, in just 50 school districts we would save 11 million in just salary not to mention benefits. Maybe give that person a secretary paying 20k. That’s a still a lot of $$$$ saved.
Instead of making employees take furloughs. Why not have each department from the state, federal, and all government related jobs take departments furloughs.
Hire more unskilled people with common sense. They may not have a degree but are willing to work hard and for less pay.
don’t over pay people for degrees that they don’t use when there are other people that can do the same job for a lot less.Hire some unskilled people and train them to do what needs to be done for a lot less cost than someone that is over qualfied for the job.
Stop overpaying for state jobs and state employees. There is no need to pay a state worker 100K for the same job that would be 40K in the private sector. Iowa has one of the highest percentage of state workers in the country!
I think we should privatize trash collection this is a job that could put a lot of people to work and save hundreds of thousand of dollars that our overpaid city workers are currently getting
Audit and full financial disclosure for all elected officials…they have nothing to hide, do they?
We the people of our state should pay our legislators minimun wage when they start serving us, including the Govenor. If they are voted in a second term give them a raise. Third term another raise and so forth. Now this payscale should not excede over $50,000.00 a year for the Govenor and he has FREE housing, food and utilities while living in the Governer’s Manson. He pays his own transportation, Insurance and body guards. His wife finds her own way to get to work, protect the children NO BODY GUARDS/State Trooper unless you can pay for it. Hire a Nanny – with your dime. Senators $40,000.00 a year and you pay your way also. Insurance, transportation, ect. We voted you in because you all told the Iowa people you would do the job for us when really you all were in it to get rich. Senator Harkin, Senator Grassley, Govenor Culvar, can you justly believe you are better then anyone else like the 83 year old man that won’t go to the doctor because he can’t afford it with only medicaid? Or the young single mother that has 2 sick kids and no insurance and needs some medicine to make them well again. Why should you keep benefiting with all the freebies when there are young and old that really need it.
Why not cut money to colleges that always seem to make improvements to SPORTS arenas or use our money for a free ride for the athletes. Universities are for education not for chasing around footballs!! The dnr needs a serious overhaul cut wasteful programs that do nothing but scare industry away and harass current establishments to close or relocate. As well as law enforcement needs to be looked at. Have you ever noticed when you get pulled over how another officer is always free to make a “drive by”. The police cars always have the latest “goodies” (graphics, fancy light bars, etc) its just such a waste when a standard could be established and reduce cost.
Currently managers pay grade is determined by how many people work under them. This practice gives an incentive to add staff. Why does this make any sense?
It is also time to look at an incentive for managers who don’t make sure they spend every cent of there budget. I think it would be nice if they posted each department’s budget for the last 5 years and show the ones that spent the most in the last month of the budget year. I think that would show you who was wasting money to hang on to their budget.
Some states do not recognize Iowa’s tax exempt entities and require them to pay sales tax on purchases. Iowa should not recognize these state’s tax exempt entities and charge sales tax.
A few basic suggestions come to mind:
1> Get rid of the front license plates, if one argues, then lets suggest we have them placed on the sides of the vehicles for further law enforcement purposes. Just not needed and many other states our way ahead of this basic simple savings.
2> Reduce the amount of mowing along highways and ditches. Some of this is necessary for safety, more is not needed thou.
3> Take a long serious unbiased look at DHS services and what it has accomplished. Yes some kids have been helped, more often then not, many our not. This Dept needs to be restructured completely and made better accountable for it’s services rendered. A few former employees personally have stated they even think it is an antiquated outdated Agency in need of a hard fix…
4> AEA: This is a farce. If taxpayers saw the amount in just salaries for these people, one would simply ask, what is it for… Please tell me, as I have no idea what they really do to assist in basic education… Again if one argues lets look at the basic facts of us versus the world, were failing the grade.
5> If a person receives state aid, our taxpayer money! Prove to me there not addicted to drugs. Make everyone, no exceptions undergo random drug testing. This initial upfront cost should be low considering the amount of drug users we can then remove off the state coffers.
6> Make all places smoke-free or allow it everywhere. The State constitution simply states this. (All laws of a General Assembly shall not grant any citizen or class of citizens privileges or immunities which upon the same terms shall not equally apply to all citizens,”) I’d be hard pressed if a judge rendered against this simply stated statement with the casino’s receiving an pro-equitable position and the state reaping direct benefits. Never less, it is commonly known that many taverns and bars have suffered revenue no matter the rhetoric of the Lung Association and others proudly quoted. This needs to be reviewed again. One suggestion is charge any tavern or Casino a $500.00 annual State permit to allow smoking in certain areas within the structure or everywhere, yes it is America, right…
7> Consider our Prison situation and the cost per inmate. Most incarcerated our drug related offenses. It’s plain as the writing on the wall, It is not working, never has worked and creates it’s own sets of problem. I have no intellectual answer but consider these facts. It cost us $41,500 per inmate yearly in Iowa, it cost $31,000 in Mich, why the disparity and it is a large disparity based on nearly 9000 inmates in Iowa. United states has more people incarcerated per capita Worldwide then any, I mean any other country incl Russia and China. Throwing away lives for a few month to 25 years is in need of hard review and reorganization. Education & rehab programs would certainly cost less. US is 5% of the worlds population and have 25% worldwide incarcerated. It cost money, big money with debatable ending results.
8. Immediate halt to salary increases/ bonuses for 2 years for all state employees. Very few in the private sector our seeing anything if there still working. This is an in-equitable situation of State employees versus private enterprise. Ditto
9.DNR. Excellent state resources for us and they do a wonderful job, but there bloated. We do not need to spend as much for NATURAL resources as we do. Again it’s natural, right. Maintaining perpetual land in Iowa should in most instances cost nothing, it’s land… Stop the acquisitions of private land and reduce the amount of unnecessary maintenance at some parks and forests.. Yellow River forest was a beautiful multi-acre preserve but years ago they spent millions paving a highway through it, why! Was it really needed.
10> For every new law enacted by the Legislature, make it mandatory to remove one
Should save legal costs and paper alone. Go green, save a tree…..
11> Make all state employees held responsible and accountable for errors, costs and related irresponsible decision making, this costs taxpayers huge money. In the private sector one can not walk away from this however state employees cost millions yearly in countless situations with little or no fear of retribution or job loss. This is not picking on State employees as the chosen few but rather looks at consequences associated with their position of authority & responsibility to the State and us..
12> Quit paying for the countless Radio, TV and bill board ads promoting special interest groups and pet budget marketing> Millions can be saved. The information highway is right here, have them blog it to readers who care.
Obviously the majority of the budget is in salaries. The top paid state employees should set the bar for unpaid furloughs. If the Governor, Judges, Legislators, Directors, Administrators, and those paid over $100,000/yr were compelled to take 2 weeks unpaid furlough (on their own schedule), and others were asked to volunteerly take furloughs of a week (on their own schedule), much of the shortfall could be covered.
Now the DOT wants to mail licenses at renewal time….how much will that cost in postage? It’s completely unnecessary and a waste of money.
The average state legislator makes less than $30,000/year.
I find it interesting that you chose not to post my idea of repealing the one dollar cigarette tax! get your heads out of the sand the tax is costing the state plenty! also all city workers are highly overpaid and over compensated the private sector could do any job the city hires for at half the cost !!
When they gave the disabled an retired people their raise they then took money away from the food stamps How many thousands were payed out in paper work an the saleries of the ones to do the paperwork? Why not just give the raise in the amount needed not to have to take away after giving the raise!! Also why can’t the politicians of the house an senate take a pay drop with so many loosing their jobs this money saved could help so many that are suffering at this time an make this country again for the people an make it a country for WE THE PEOPLE as it started out
Do we really NEED a Scretary of State? Exactly what do they do? Also, how many Agencies, Bureaus and Commissions do we have? Are all of these absolutely necessary or do they overlap? These are things that need to be addressed immediately and proper action taken!!
Offer an early retirement plan to state employees. Money can be saved by combining duties instead of filling those positions.
Cut AEA by at least 50% this year. Their administrators’ salaries are outrageous!
As a state employee I would be very angry to be told of a mandatory furlough when contracted positions are maintained. Let’s get rid of the contracted positions for unnecessary items, such as in my department, a contract with an outside firm for marketing? Really? That’s what gives state workers a bad name. ALL state agencies need to re-review expenditures and not look at them as “something we’ve always done or always had”. With the national economic crisis in full swing, it’s obvious the Wall Street gangs are thinking that – until they get caught, for instance, “Oh yea, I’ll redecorate my office with my OWN $1.2 million instead of using my companies funds that were included in the bailout. State of Iowa agencies are no different. Take a hard look. Also, on a statewide basis, cutting the counties from 99 to a much more manageable number of 20-30 would save millions each year. Again, just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t make it right. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”.
Stop inspection of water heaters. The state boiler inspectors now inspect both steam boilers and water heaters. Water heaters do not represent a high degree of risk.
Please visit this website – http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/Script/DisplayPressRelease.php3?Display=972
Thanks for the opportunity.
The Department of Administrative Services is paying huge dollars to move the customer service desk to the 1st floor of the Hoover Building. This is an unnecessary expense at this time and in fact, reduces the security of the DAS staff on A level.
Why not go with 4 ten hour days, shut down the Capitol Complex one day a week?
Or make 4 ten hour days state wide.
Consolidate counties instead of the schools, help to unclog the courts by eliminating the mental health advocates for the persons, who already have a Case Manager or advocate this is a duplication of services. Go to using a Mental Health Court system, not to mention it is less traumatic to those with mental health issues. This would also save on transportation costs that the counties are required to pay to and from the hospital.
Instead of just telling state workers they are paid too much, why not ask them for ideas on how to save money in their jobs. The front line workers would have ideas.
Try and find a way for the county and state road departments to work together. It’s frustrating to see a county snow plow truck with the plow in the air driving to their route on a DOT highway.
Collaboration and working together is what it will take for Iowans to work through this current budget crisis.
Forest Reserve and those types of exemptions have them taxed at 50% of taxable value (to help pay for roads, schools, etc) and since taxpayers are currently footing the bill for these types of exemptions the land involved becomes available for public hunting. This would help all counties as there are several types of exemptions not being used as they were originally intended.
The State should look into what these Congress and State Representative men and women are making and look into cutting their pay and start cutting their pay. With thousands of Iowans losing they jobs the first thing that they want to do is raise gas tax, sales tax and any other tax they can think of. It is hard enough for so many Iowans to make it the way it is. The State needs to make budget cuts in the right places and education is not one of them. Stop giving state help to nonresidents.
I think a great way to save money is to consolidate the small schools. I grew up in a small school and actually open-enrolled later in my high school career because I was not receiving a quality education. By consolidating schools, we can offer better programs, hire better teachers, and give the students more opportunities. They need to get a good start while in high school so they can have any chance out in the real world. If there are less schools, we will have to support less small-school districts who only stay open because no one is brave enough to force a school closure. The best thing would be privatized education, but I don’t believe that will be a measure considered.
The Govenor’s office needs to step in and make all departments accountable for the extra middle and upper management that has been added over the years that aren’t needed. These departments have continued to create positions and give themselves promotions even knowing things were getting tight. Appoint someone to look into every state agency and millions of dollars could be saved. I can give you several instances in just the Department I have worked in for 22yrs.
I really don’t believe you care what individuals think anymore. I’ve already sent my daughter to an out of state university and after my wife and I retire in a couple of years we will leave this state too, taking both pensions and 401ks.
offer an attractive early retirement plan to state employees (including health care). Replace retiring state workers with younger, more energetic, and cheaper workers.
Cut mail delivery to 5 days per week,drop Tuesday.
Leasing the lottery is the stupidest idea I have ever heard next to selling the tobacco settlement. It is a revenue source and you want to cut it for a quick fix. You don’t get rid of a revenue source to try and save money. You can’t get enough for it because an investor won’t buy it unless they get a good return. Why not keep that return. Also, no other state has done this because the Federal Government won’t allow it. Or do you think that an investor will lease the lottery without getting control.
have state worker pay 1/3 of their health insurance premiums. For every $10,000 a worker is paid of above the state’s average salary they have to pay an addition 10% more above the 1/3 for health insurance up to a maximum of 50% of the cost of coverage.
I have 2 recommendations:
1. Stop mowing right of ways. Lease or give rights to local farmers for their hay production. Works in S.D.
2. Any increase in Iowa higher education tuition approved by the Regeant would result in an equal percentage reduction in the Regeant’s admin budget and the same reduction in their salary, i.e.: 4.5% tuition increase equals a 4.5% budget and salary reduction. This savings is then applied to help school funding.
I see by the morning paper, bicycles have been given more highway rights.. Why not license bicycles like the auto’s if the are going to be on the state highways??? This would aid the general fund, the state is spending thousands of dollars on bicycle trails,with no return on the expenditures.
Reduce middle management in DHS offices. Instead, have office managers to handle office issues including personnel. Policy and case assistance can be obtained from the area offices. Also, negotiate buy-outs with long term eployees. Then, hire new employees for less pay and benefits.
1)Offer DHS clients to receive notices electronically to save paper and postage expense. 2)Close offices on Christmas Eve. Productivity is low as few people work and few seek services on that day.
3)Social Workers could do visits for each other. Often multiple social workers are traveling to the same locations multiple times a month. One worker could do visits and then do a report to the other workers.
4)Copy less things into paper case records. Document that you saw the item and what it said (for example, negative drug screenings) or scan it into an electronic file.
5)Eliminate monthly meetings. Do meetings bi-monthly or quarterly. Disseminate information by e-mail.
6)Limit Promise Jobs activity to 30 months or do the extra 30 months only if the client wants it.
7)Give Departments a paper budget to encourage or maybe force the use of less paper.
8)Mandate state employees whose jobs require overtime to work 10 hour days during a 4 day work week to avoid overtime.
State workers, the average front line guys, make a lot less than the front line guys in the private sector. The average worker pays for their own upgrade education, training, etc. It is the upper management that makes 2-5 times what the average worker makes. We get a free basic healthcare for the worker. Administrators/supervisors get free family, more money, the use of State cars to drive their kids to work, bonuses, free Blackberry’s to text and call their kids.
I am a state worker (25 years) who has worked as a field social worker at DHS, a Program Planner for DNR and now for IDALS. I don’t want to see anyone lose their jobs, but is it necessary for the Director of the DNR (and perhaps other state agencies) to have upwards of a dozen or more “staff aides”, many of whom are former Bureau Chiefs, supervisors and higher-paid (paygrade 30 and above)staff who have retained either their same pay rate or promoted to a higher pay grade with no PDQ or job description and little accountability as to what they do?
Why does the average state legislator make make $30K or just under when the session is only a few months long. Yes they have to go home and campaign, talk to constituents and represent but for most of them it is a second job or they are retired. How many of them are able to serve only because they either own their own business or are in a position of power to be able to take 4 months off during session. I say part time pay for a part time job!