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I want to bring you up to date with the 10 percent spending reduction by our state. That projection by the REC reduced state revenues by 415 million. Gov. Culver took decisive action to make an immediate 10 percent across the board cut to keep the state budget balanced.
The state agencies have been preparing preliminary plans for the last two weeks that were released this week. The governor has made it clear he will work to make sure the state maintains critical support in public safety and services to vulnerable citizens.
The legislative body will be cutting 10 percent as well as the rest of state government. These are the cuts:
1- The 2010 session will be reduced from 100 days to 80 days.
2- A pay freeze for all legislative employees.
3. Six furlough days for full-time legislative employees.
4-Hiring freeze for full-time permanent employees.
5- Reduced hours for session-only staff.
6- Reduced in-state travel for legislators and staff.
7- Eliminated staff positions.
8- Reduced printing and no new equipment purchases.
We know next year is going to be another tough budget year, so we are asking Iowans to help us to identify savings. As tight as it is in Iowa, we are still fortunate to be in the top 6 or 7 as far as state ecomony.
We are very fortunate in Iowa to have 25 percent of the nation's grade A cropland. That base gives us a productive agricultural base that can not be moved to another country and those commodities produced especially corn, soybeans, and the resulting livestock production gives us a hugh base of agricultural employment as we produce food, feed, and fuel form our excess production.
In spite of all of those products produced and consumed in this country, we still have tremendous exports going down the Mississippi to many foreign countries to help feed their hungry.
The production of ethanol has not only allowed us to produce more gallons of ethanol than actual gas usuage in this state, but has allowed us to export the DDG's byproduct for livestock feed. The usuage of ethanol has not only reduced our emissions to our atmosphere, but it's production has been friendly to the usuage of water-now requiring only a little over three gallons to one gallon of ethanol. We forget that it takes 44 gallons of water to refine one gallon of oil and two to three gallons to make one gallon of gas. As we search out new sources of gas, tar sands, and oil shale, we find that six to eight gallons of water will be necessary to produce every gallon of gas.
There is no good reason that we should continue to import 70 percent of our oil needs--some of answers lie in our Iowa fields.
Renewable energy will continue to play an important part in our economy as we see crude oil start another spike up. We will find that wind will become a bigger player as Iowa continues to be a leader and manufacturer of those large components that are so hard to transport from overseas factories.
There are a lot of good paying jobs developing as we harness another asset that we have taken for granted-the wind. Southeast Iowa and especially Washington county has been recently discovered as having that asset in sufficient quantities to support a wind farm. The future of our state is bright despite this bump in economy that we are currently working through.
We will continue to concentrate on the assets we have in this state, methods that we can use to provide our citizens with efficient services, schools, health care, elderly care, and the may services that we have come to expect from our tax dollars. I am open to any ideas that can help make our dollars stretch further and be used to the greatest advantage.
As a farmer, I have seen many peaks and valleys and have had to adjust numbers many times in my career. Thank you for allowing me to represent you at the Iowa Statehouse as we approach another year.
