Prichard: State budgeting ‘going to be tough’

By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

It has been a difficult legislative session for state Rep. Todd Prichard, but it’s about to get a whole lot tougher for the Charles City Democrat.

“There’s just no other way to put it, the budget is going to be tough,” Prichard told a group gathered for a legislative forum hosted by Chickasaw County Farm Bureau Saturday morning. “It’s not pretty, and in some ways, we have only ourselves to blame.’

Prichard, as he has done at the two previous forums held during the 2017 session of the Legislature, blamed tax credits for the state’s budget woes.

He also added that relatively flat sales tax collections and lower farm income have contributed to the budget issues the state is facing.

Earlier in the week, Gov. Terry Branstad reduced his 2017-18 budget by $173 million, and in late January, Branstad and legislators cut $118 million from the budget for this fiscal year that ends on June 30.

“In some ways, we only have ourselves to blame,” Prichard said during his solo appearance at the forum. “I keep saying it over and over, but we must get a handle on these tax credits … some of which aren’t capped or sunset, which is a bad way to budget anything.”

The area’s other legislative representative, State Sen. Waylon Brown, R-St. Ansgar, was unable to attend Saturday morning’s forum.

He was replaced by Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tim Zoll, a Republican from Nashua, but almost the entire discussion centered on state issues.

Prichard, who has filed papers to explore a run for governor in 2018, took issue with Branstad and GOP legislative leaders on a number of issues — ranging from the state’s decision to privatize Medicaid to the lack of investment in the state to a new law that does not allow individual counties to establish higher minimum wages than the state’s $7.25 per hour.

He pointed out that many of Branstad’s proposed budget cuts have been directed at education and social services programs.

“I’ve never seen a governor work so hard to bring low-paying jobs to the state,” he said, referring to cuts in education that he said will lead to less money for community colleges.

“Those are the institutions that provide job training and job programs for people who will stay in Iowa.”

He also emphasized that he wasn’t against all tax credits, but he expressed frustration for an $8 million tax credit granted to Facebook for its new Altoona location that will lead to the creation of just 10 jobs.

“To quote Donald Trump, and I know that sounds weird coming from me,” he said, “but we have to come up with a better deal.”

Prichard said Iowa’s Medicaid system is “nothing short of a disaster,” telling forum attendees that he’s worried not only about the issues for “consumers” but about “the amount of correspondence I’m getting from providers who aren’t getting paid.”

Still, he said there have been some positives to come out of the session, including a water-quality bill that will set up a revolving loan fund to help local entities with flood mitigation and water issues.

“It’s a start,” he said, “but the 3/8ths sales tax that I know I’ve heard a lot of support for is politically just not in the cards. But I feel good that we got something going.”