– President Obama, Inaugural Address, January 20th 2009.

Friends and neighbors,

Over the past several months, I have enjoyed talking with many of you and listening to your concerns about the direction of our state and our country. One thing that I continue to hear from people is a growing concern that government is no longer accountable to the people. There is frustration at runaway spending, without an ability to understand where our tax dollars are being spent. This must change.

Again this year, my colleagues and I in the House Republican caucus will be working to pass the Iowa Transparency Act. This bill directs the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to develop and operate a single searchable web site for Iowa taxpayers to see how and where their tax dollars are being collected and spent.

The Iowa Transparency web site will allow the public, at no cost, to search a database that would provide the names and principal location or residence of recipients of state funds, amount of funds expended, the agency that provided those funds, the program or activity of the expenditure, description of the purpose of the expenditure, expected and past outcomes of funding actions or expenditures, state audits relating to expenditures, and other relevant information.

The Iowa House passed this legislation in 2009 with bi-partisan support, but the bill was not taken up by the Senate.

The people of Iowa hold power over their government, not the other way around. The public should always be kept informed.

I am always eager to hear your ideas on how to not only improve our budgeting practices, but also how we can reform the way our government does business. Please stay in touch, and together we can work toward getting Iowa back on track.

I suspect that the Culver Administration thinks that this will help them buy votes next year, but based on the conversations I have with my fellow citizens, it will likely backfire.  The people of Iowa simply do not want more debt.  They are frustrated with exploding deficits at the federal level and concerned about runaway spending here in Iowa.

Amanda pointed out that there used to be a sign near this job site that said “Your Tax Dollars at Work” (or something similar).  This new one ought to instead read “Your Children’s Tax Dollars at Work.”  I hope Owen gets his money’s worth.

This 10% spending cut applies equally to all areas of state government. No effort will be made to prioritize state spending, no effort to determine which state programs are more valuable than others. During the last legislative session, House Republicans offered over amendments amounting to over $330 million in budget savings, yet those were almost all ignored. With targeted cuts, the state would now be in a position to preserve funding for the most critical functions of government.

(Question: Is the Power Fund equally as important as Education or Public Safety?)

It is important to understand that this budget cut also shifts much of the financial burden on to local communities. Included in the 10% ATB spending cut is local school. Here in the West Des Moines Community School District, initial estimates reveal at least $4 million in direct cuts for FY 2010. By Governor Culver’s own admission, this will likely end up as a property tax increase.

I continue to stand opposed to any property tax increase. Family budgets are stretched too thin and commercial property taxes are already a disincentive to economic development.

While I am glad that Governor Culver has finally seen the light on the need to cut spending, he’s going about it the wrong way. The correct course of action would have been to call the legislature back into special session to make targeted budget cuts. We must learn to set priorities for state spending. It is also regrettable that the Governor has backtracked on his promise to not raise taxes.

My colleagues and I in the House Republican Caucus stand ready to again offer our ideas on how to save the state money. Perhaps next year, the Governor will be listening.

On Saturday morning, I drive up to Cedar Falls to help my dad out with some fallen trees, one of which had fallen on to the roof of a rental property that my parents own in the Greenbrier neighborhood of Waterloo, a mile or two east of the Waterloo airport.

My first impression is that this was probably the worst wind damage that I’ve ever seen not caused my a tornado.  There were many large trees that were simply uprooted from the ground, and many others snapped off at the base.  Even a full day after the storm first hit, many city streets were still impassable, and the power was out to a large part of the west side of town.  From my perspective, the worst of the damage was around the UNI campus, Price lab School (possible future site of the proposed Research and Development Training School) and west toward Main Street.

After a long day of cutting down a few fallen trees, Amanda, my Mother and I took another drive through town.  It was remarkable to see how much progress had been made toward clearing up the debris.  We had several neighbors come and help us out, and we saw the same thing happening across town.  At the Lab School, we saw a lot of younger people out working to clean the limbs and carry it out to the curb for pickup.  They obviously had spent a good portion of the day helping out when they could have enjoyed their Saturday doing anything else.

Obviously, this storm was nothing like what had happened in Parkersburg a year before, but it was my own chance to see Iowans roll up their sleeves and get to work to clean up their community.  Just like during last year’s disasters, the people of Cedar Falls and Waterloo simply got up, dusted themselves off and got to work.  This is a prime example of what is great about Iowa.

Here are a few more of the pictures I took from Saturday. This one was a car parked on the corner of Olive and College:

This garage on 18th Street (near Tremont?) was blown across the alley into the garage on the right that is still standing, albeit leaning over.

1900 block of Clay Street.