Iowa Values Fund Deal Appears To Be In The Works
by Darrell Lewis
Gov.
Vilsack has called a special session of the Iowa Legislature to deal
with the debacle brought on by legislative Republicans. Until
today the word was that the Gov. called the session absent an agreement
between himself and the Republican-controlled legislature.
The word
out now is that Senate Republicans are signing off on a compromise
offered by Governor Vilsack on the Iowa Values Fund, but only after the
proposal was endorsed by a powerful business group
Senate
President Jeff Lamberti said that since the Association of Business and
Industry signed off on the plan, Senate Republicans would now follow
suit. “I think they were waiting to see what ABI said – that was their
biggest concern,” Lamberti said of his fellow Senators.
“Senator
Lamberti's frankness gives working families a rare peek behind the
workings of the Iowa Republican Party,” said State Senator Mike
Connolly of Dubuque. “Lamberti admitted that Republicans weren’t
concerned about the impact of proposed legislation on injured workers,
Iowa schoolchildren, college students and the tax burden on working
families.”
“Instead,
their only consideration was the opinion of a handful of business and
industry people. meeting behind closed doors in downtown Des Moines,”
Connolly said. “That is a slap in the face to thousands of hard-working
Iowa families, students and seniors.”
Of
course, this is no surprise to us. We've been talking here for
months now about the self interest/special interest Senate leadership.
Isn't it
interesting as the election grows near, the radical right leadership in
the Iowa Senate suddenly seems to be concerned about doing what is
right, about doing what they could have done during the last
legislative session.
This article first appeared on the Drury for Iowa Senate website.
For more on this story, click here.
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