LETTER: Shutdown, Iowa revenues signal future financial issues

To the editor,

As in everything, in the end, the truth will win out. With the government shutdown, no one wants responsibility for the pain and ultimate problems it

causes. Yet, if those Congressmen who aren’t even in Washington continue to

get paid, does it not tell you something about their responsibility for what

is happening?

The state of Iowa is potentially falling on hard times, suffering from untold millions of tax cuts to the wealthiest, while gutting our public-school

funding when the legislature gave away (no strings attached) to private schools! The projections are out; the expected gap between the state’s income and spending increased is $1.3 billion. There will be another figure yet to come in December which will give us where the budget stands based on future expectations of revenues from the Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference.

However, using our reserves to fix budget problems that will be on-going will eventually end. With the state reserve being bled down, a recession will be tough to budget around; especially with the radically changing situation in Washington and its shutdown.

Compromise needs to happen to end this, that means those vacationing in home districts need to get back to work and earn the money we pay them!

Steve Hanken

Monticello