Des Moines, Iowa — A disagreement over whether to spend 14 MILLION dollars boosting pay for paraeducators in public schools is the big stumbling block in budget talks among Republican lawmakers. Governor Kim Reynolds says House Speaker Pat Grassley successfully lobbied to include that amount in last year’s budget and, if it was a priority, it should have been part of the K-12 funding plan House and Senate Republicans already adopted in April.
Grassley says the 2024 legislature made a commitment to raise paraeducators’ pay, and House Republicans strongly feel that commitment should be maintained.
For years, Republicans have criticized Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, for approving an increase in state funding for schools in the spring of 2009, then ordering a 10 percent across-the-board spending cut that fall during the Great Recession. This week, Governor Reynolds and Senate Republicans announced they’ve agreed on an overall state spending plan that’s five-point-two percent higher than last years. House Republicans favor spending 36 MILLION dollars more. Grassley says House Republicans find themselves in a familiar position — negotiating against the unified Republican Governor Reynolds and Senate Republicans.
Reynolds says she is leery of the higher level of spending House Republicans propose given an updated estimate on state tax revenue.
Reynolds made her comments during an interview with Radio Iowa. Grassley, the grandson of US Senator Chuck Grassley, held a statehouse news conference a few hours later.
Reynolds says House-passed bills providing sales tax breaks for toilet paper and laundry detergent that Grassley has championed would further complicate the budget picture.
Reynolds says the House Republicans’ budget plan is too much of an escalation in state spending and would impede her goal to continue reducing the state income tax.
Reynolds has said she wants to eliminate the state income tax by January of 2027 — the end of her current term. Reynolds announced last month that she would not run for another term as governor.
