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.

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