Spending & Government Reorganization

January 29, 2010

Iowa’s $1.1 Billion Spending Gap

Governor Culver has increased Iowa’s annual budget by $1 billion during the first three years of his term, and now we are going into fiscal year 2011 with a $1.1 billion spending gap. This is not a coincidence; it is gross mismanagement of our tax dollars. How much is a billion dollars, you say? Here’s how I picture it: You would have to spend $38,052 every single hour of the three years Culver’s been Governor to spend an extra billion dollars. That’s over $913,000 in additional spending every single day!

Government Reorganization Savings Inflated in Governor’s Budget:

Governor Culver included $341 million in Government Reorganization Savings for the FY2011 Budget. However, the Fiscal Impact Statement released on January 20 by the Legislative Services Division predicts only $29 million in savings for FY2011. This overinflated tally includes a shift of $50 million in State Patrol Costs to the Road Fund. Folks, shifting expenditures from one fund to another is not a savings to the taxpayers of Iowa.

I am all for shrinking Government if that is what we are truly doing, but I am not going to allow someone to use smoke and mirrors tactics to shift things around and call it something it is not. As I watch this unfold I am going to be honest to my constituents. Last year we offered over $300 million in cost saving ideas in amendments during floor debates and not one was accepted. Instead, the majority party choose to keep buying bug shields, leather seats, and Bose stereos for state cars, rather than being thrifty with Iowans tax dollars.

House Republicans are working to find real solutions to our state budget crisis, and I look forward to receiving your input as we continue this complicated process.

Respectfully,

Representative Kent Sorenson
515-962-2192
kent@kentsorenson.com

Legislative Update

Iowa government is facing its toughest year yet. As you will read below, the current financial outlook for Iowa is bleak. But in the midst of all these problems, I want you to know that House Republican leaders are asking questions designed to hold legislators accountable and keeping the upcoming budget process transparent for all Iowans to scrutinize.

Iowa’s Spending Gap Rises Perilously

During Governor Culver’s term, the gap between state spending and revenue has skyrocketed. In FY2009, the spending gap was $400 million, which increased to $800 million in FY2010. However, fiscal services is now estimating a $1.1 billion spending gap for FY2011.

How Much Money Will Government Reorganization Save ?

Only a couple weeks ago, Democratic leaders of the State Government Reorganization Committee claimed that there were “scores of millions of dollars to be saved” through creating a new operating structure of state government. However, this week we learned that the current recommended changes yield only 1.7 million savings in  FY2010, 28.9 million in FY2011, and $66.7 million in FY 2012, which is far short of the earlier prediction of $200 million in savings.

Property Taxpayers Beware! Education Bill Watch

House File 2001, sponsored by key Democrats, allows Iowa school districts to shift up to $380 million in employee benefit costs from the general fund to property taxes. If passed, HF2001 could result in up to $380 million in additional property taxes for Iowans.

In Your Community

I want to hear your input on addressing Iowa’s issues. Our first 2010 legislative forum is on Saturday, January 30 from 9-10 am at the Norwalk Library, 1051 North Avenue. I look forward to seeing you there!

As I write this newsletter, I am struck by the enormity of the job that lies ahead, particularly with Governor Culver and Democrats in control of the legislature. I’ll need your help this year to make sure our voices are heard.

Respectfully,

Rep. Kent Sorenson

Kent.sorenson@legis.state.ia.us

515-962-2192

Beginning Of The 2010 Session

Why am I running for Office

On September 22, 2009 I announced my intention to run for Iowa Senate in district 37, and to unseat the incumbent Senator Staci Appel.   Most people presume that I am running because of my passion to see the Iowa Marriage Amendment come to the people for a vote.  Conventional wisdom says that I am running to replace Senator Appel because she is an obstruction to passing the marriage amendment, and because she is married to one of the Supreme Court Justices who participated in the creation of so-called homosexual “marriage”.

Marriage did play a role in my decision, and will be a key issue in our race, but it is a reflection of my motivation for running – not the motivation itself.  My reason for running comes from a lifetime of hard lessons, from an understanding of just how difficult it can be to raise a family, and from knowing what it’s like to overcome many obstacles along the way.  In short, I’m running not because I am convinced that I am better than anyone else in the district, but rather because I know that I am not.

Two years ago, I would never have imagined that I would be serving in the Iowa House.  I have never had political aspirations, and actually shied away from politics and politicians.  It wasn’t until I met our legislators, and figured out just how unwilling they were to listen to a constituent like me, that I finally got involved.

When I first went to visit the capitol, I watched Senator Appel turn red in the face when asked to defend her actions on the Senate floor.  Instead of thanking me for paying attention, or even trying to convince me that my impression of her was wrong, she just flatly said, “this conversation is over,” and walked away.  I thought that was shockingly disrespectful, until I tried to meet the man who was then our State Representative.  When I asked to speak to him, he came to the front door of the House, looked out at me and the friends that were with me, turned around and went back inside.  We waited for over two hours, but he never again so much as showed his face in the capitol rotunda that afternoon.

As a result, of watching my State Senator walk away from me rather than answer honest questions, and after watching my Sate Representative hide from his constituents, I decided that something had to change.  I knew we needed new representation in the legislature, but I decided early on that I would not be that guy.

I had a picture in my mind of what an elected official looks like, and I certainly didn’t fit the bill.  I thought that politicians were people who came from privileged backgrounds, that they were well connected with powerful people, and that they were more or less born to serve in elected office.  I’m not sure why I thought that office holders were such a separate and privileged class, but I was pretty sure that I had no business running for office.

I’m more than a little too short for my weight, I’m bald, and I’m not especially well known for my diplomacy.  I’m a father of six, who has had to work hard to make my way in the world, and who has a colorful past.  For example, I was married and a father before I could legally drink.  I was anything but a “good boy” growing up, and found myself getting into trouble via the many temptations this culture has to offer.  As a young man an older man I looked up to violated the trust I put in him, which took me years to overcome.  I was essentially the guy you wouldn’t want your daughter to marry, until my wife whipped me into shape and God got a hold of my heart.  As a father of a teenage daughter now, its obvious God has a sense of humor because I find myself trying to protect her from the very sort of boy I was.

I have been poor, abused, and written off.  I know what it feels like to be given up on.  I know what happens to your life when you do the bad things the culture wants to say are really good.  Like many of you, I know what the real world is like, and that it’s not always easy to do the right thing when everyone else seems to be getting away with doing the wrong one.

If they would’ve handed out an award in high school for “least likely to ever run for office” I certainly would’ve won it.  Nevertheless, someone had to take a stand, and my problem was no one was willing to rise up and run against an incumbent in a district that favors the democrats in an anti republican year.

That left me with a dilemma. I could allow my appearance, my business, or my past to keep me from running, or I could step forward and see what happened.

I chose to step forward.

With your help, I beat that incumbent for his Statehouse seat last year, and this year I need your help to rid this district of another elitist politician this go around.  I have nothing to hide.  My life was not always pretty, but it is an example of the grace of God and the power of second chances.  Many of you in this district could use a second chance, and we all could certainly use a little grace.

I’m just like you.  I have kids I love but am not always sure I can afford.  My wife and I have the same ups and downs you have.  We never seem to have enough money, and our family history isn’t a Hallmark Card.  But we believe in the America Dream.  Shawnee and I teach our children that if you do the right thing more often than not, you can be successful here in Iowa.

Sadly, Staci Appel and Chet Culver are remaking Iowa in their image, and if we don’t stop them before it’s too late we’ll leave our children and grandchildren with an Iowa our parents and grandparents wouldn’t recognize.  An Iowa where elites fatten the wallets of their political cronies while your jobs leave the state, and an Iowa where unelected judges impose their twisted morality on the rest of us without allowing us the fundamental right to vote.

Despite my obvious imperfections, I’m willing to take a stand because there’s too much at stake.  But I can’t make that stand alone.  I need your help, and we are better together.  The history of this republic has shown that whenever we the people rise up collectively and take a firm stand, the establishment eventually surrenders.  I want us to make that history happen again.

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