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Lawmakers spent most of Wednesday grinding away on just a couple of issues, delaying the final adjournment of the 2011 legislative session until sometime today (Thursday). They’re close to the deadline for approving a state budget plan, as the new state budget year begins Friday. The six-month-long effort to strike a deal between the two parties on property tax reform was abandoned Wednesday and legislators focused solely on the final details of the state budget. Senator Bob Dvorsky, a Democrat from Coralville, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“We have a good group of senators and house members who really worked at it,” Dvorsky says. “And once people of good faith sat down, we were able to move some things forward.” Representative Scott Raecker, a Republican from Urbandale, is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

“It has taken a long time this year,” Raecker says. “But I believe the end result will be something that people will walk out of the capitol knowing that they did an exceptional job and Iowans will be very proud of the budget that’s been delivered.” A huge budget bill cleared both the Senate and House last night before lawmakers adjourned for the evening. But property tax reform has fallen off the to-do list. Republicans like Senate G-O-P Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton blame Democrats for failing to pass the property tax cut Republican Governor Terry Branstad has been pushing. Democrats like Senator Joe Bolkcom, of Iowa City, fault Republicans for failing to embrace the significantly different property tax relief plan Democrats devised.

The two parties did strike an agreement on education spending, approving a status quo spending plan for K-through-12 schools for the next academic year and a two percent increase in the following year. The House and Senate are scheduled to return to the statehouse this morning (Thursday) to take action on two final bills, including the legislation that has been at the center of the latest abortion fight. Lawmakers faced a looming deadline for final approval of the budget, as the new state fiscal year begins July 1st. One of the two bills scheduled to approval today (Thursday) would ensure the governor has the authority to keep state government operating before he gives his formal approval to each of the budget bills. The governor will have 30 days to review the bills, and he could use his item veto authority on some individual spending items.

(O.Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

After a protracted stand-off over state spending on schools, the two political parties have agreed to a status quo level of state aid to K-through-12 public schools for the school year that begins this fall. However, the agreement calls for two percent more in per-pupil state aid in the following year. Representative Cecil Dolecheck, a Republican from Mount Ayr, helped craft the final deal. “It’s a compromise that’s pretty close to middle ground,” Dolecheck says.

Republicans had proposed ending state-funded preschool programs, but Democrats objected. This year, the state spent about 36-hundred dollars on each four-year-old enrolled in public preschool programs. The compromise calls for reducing that state spending by about seven-hundred dollars per student. Senator Bob Dvorsky, a Democrat from Coralville, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and he sees that as a victory. “There’s a lot of support for preschool out there,” Dvorsky says.

Dvorsky says school districts needed that extra seven-hundred dollars per preschooler the past few years as programs were started, but Dvorsky says preschools should be able to easily operate on with about three-thousand dollars per student in the coming year.

The Iowa House has just endorsed the education budget bill, which includes spending for the state-supported universities and community colleges, too. The Senate is expected to take up the plan soon. The next state budgeting year begins Friday, July 1st and legislators are racing to strike final deals and pass bills that outline the final details of a nearly six-billion dollar state budget.

There is a budget-related dispute over abortion policy which remains unresolved. The effort to enact a major property tax reform package has been abandoned today, but Governor Branstad is hinting he’ll press the issue, perhaps in a special session later this year.

(O.Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

The Council Bluffs Police Department has issued a Traffic Advisory concerning the Veteran’s Memorial Highway. Officials say the Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Seepage Blanket Project will result in heavy truck traffic entering and exiting Vet’s Memorial Highway at the ATV parking lot, on the north side. The Advisory covers the 3500-to 4200 Block of Veteran’s Memorial Highway.

Officials say all westbound traffic will need to be prepared to merge to the left lane, west of South 35^th Street, in Council Bluffs. Traffic control devices will assist motorists with the merge, while the right lane will be dedicated to truck traffic only.

More volunteers are needed to fill sandbags in Council Bluffs as the community fights to hold back the high water of the flooding Missouri River. Kris Ranney, with the Council Bluffs Volunteer Center, says they also need muscle power to set the sandbags in position over the many miles of levees.  Ranney says, “I think mostly it’s going to include placing sandbags along the levee.” She says volunteers are helping to take a load off the shoulders of city workers who have been working non-stop to keep Council Bluffs safe from the swirling floodwater. 

Ranney says the volunteers will “just trying to help support the city crews as they’re trying to maintain and keep the levees as stable as possible.” She says they’re looking for strong men and women to help pack the sandbags and get them ready for city crews, but it won’t be light work.

“It will mostly be a matter of picking up and lugging 30- 40-pound sandbags for placement,” she says. There are two shifts planned with hopes of having between 50 and 100 volunteers per shift. For times and locations, volunteers are asked to contact the Bluffs City Clerk or the Center at (712) 328-2606.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

The Adair County Temporary Redistricting Committee will meet this evening in the Supervisor’s Board Room, at the Courthouse in Greenfield. The group is responsible for drawing the new Supervisor District lines, using the 2010 Census numbers, and established the precinct boundaries for voting.

The TRC meeting begins at 6-p.m., and includes the election of a Chairperson, presentation of instructions to the committee, discussion pertaining to redistricting, and other matters.

A portion of Interstate 80 eastbound near Casey, in Adair County, was closed for about 25-minutes Wednesday, after a vehicle caught fire. The interstate was reported to have been officially closed at 1:47-p.m., and re-opened to traffic at 2:03-p.m.

No other details are currently available concerning the fire.

U.S. Ag Sec. Tom Vilsack

U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday, announced the selection of 21 utilities for loans and grants to help rural businesses expand and create jobs. Six projects are in Iowa. Among the communities receiving loan or grant funds, are the Cities of Atlantic and Manning.

In Atlantic, the Board of Waterworks and Electric Power Plant Trustees received a $300,000 grant to construct a 25,000-square-foot-industrial building for local or new manufacturing businesses.

And in Manning, the city’s Municipal Light Plant received a $250,000 grant to purchase the Manning Hausbarn Heritage Park campus for an attraction, education and conference center.

Ag Secretary Vilsack says “These loans and grants help cooperatives and utilities support local projects that create jobs and improve rural economic conditions.” He said also the “USDA is proud to be a partner in the effort to bolster these cooperatives and help them ‘Win the Future’ by increasing the value and appeal of the products and services they deliver.”