Cleaning Up

It's nearing the end of the legislative session for 2011, at least for the statehouses in Lincoln and Des Moines.

We've been watching both state legislatures carefully this year, as examples of what to do, what not to do, and what can't - or shouldn't - be done at the state level.

In Nebraska, in spite of the ranting and raving of far too many on the political right that ANY increase in taxes would be too much, more revenue has been found. In fact, legislators in Nebraska overrode the governor's veto in order to ask Nebraskans to spend five bucks more a year for state park entry fees. The threat of a second veto override also cowed Nebraska's governor into signing a larger roads funding bill than had initially been expected.

Both bills gained bipartisan support, which surprised many observers from both sides of the aisle.

In Iowa, the theme of this year's legislative session seems to have been partisanship.

The legislature there remains at a standstill, on many key issues, with neither side willing to budge. Technically, the Iowa legislature is now past its original scheduled ending date. Most legislative staffers have already been released, as most people did not expect the session to continue this long. Still, three key bills have yet to be passed: the school funding bill, a proposed tax relief bill, and the Iowa state budget.

Extreme gridlock notwithstanding, we have seen significant compromise on some issues in Iowa this session.

Iowa's congressional redistricting efforts went extremely well, considering the state will be losing one member of its U.S. house delegation. Of course, Iowa also had the foresight over 25 years ago to install a nonpartisan redistricting process - so that issue was really a non-issue, even before this year's legislature met.

In comparison, Nebraska, which is losing no seats, appears to have its congressional redistricting headed to Federal court - incurring unnecessary expense for taxpayers - due to a highly partisan and illogical redrawing of the Nebraska congressional map.

Neither state legislature passed many bills this year, though not for lack of trying. Both states also passed some legislation which, in our opinion, is both questionable and offensive. Regardless of our opinion on the content of those bills, we think it's obvious what worked in both legislative bodies this year: compromise.

It's also obvious what didn't work, for both state legislatures: extremism, primarily from the political right.

In Nebraska, the insane insistence that no more revenue could be had - when it's obvious that was not the case - was a stupid, petty, and ultimately failed strategy by those who claim to be fiscally responsible. Their hypocrisy on that issue has now become disgustingly clear.

In Iowa, the hypocrisy continues, with a state strapped for funds, and a governor and Republican-majority house still insisting on massive tax cuts for businesses -  while not allowing for any growth of budgets for schools. If no budget deal is made before Iowa's new fiscal year begins in July, the Republican governor and Republican House of Representatives (which is responsible for all spending bills), could be responsible for closing Iowa state parks on the Fourth of July, as well as the layoffs of thousands of workers during the height of summer.

Attempting to hold back a state's fiscal liabilities while not collecting enough revenue for its responsibilities is akin to trying to hold back the ocean while trying to hold down every grain of sand on a beach.

Doing so will only make you look foolish - and ultimately leave you all wet.