Paul McKinley for Iowa

As the dust settles on the 2009 legislative session, Iowans are just beginning to comprehend the extent of the modifications made to the state. With approximately three million Iowans serving as the employers and one governor and 150 legislators as the employees, how would the people of Iowa grade the work of their employees this year? I believe it is necessary to provide the employers with some much needed perspective.

Throughout this session, Republican senators have listened to and corresponded with literally tens of thousands of Iowans and one dominant theme has surfaced: Iowans are wondering if their legislators care about their opinion and about giving them a voice. Government is supposed to be of the people and for the people but oftentimes this session the people were left wondering if this was government versus the people.

When the Legislature finally adjourned after a sleepless marathon weekend of activity, the Legislature, completely controlled by Gov. Culver and legislative Democrats, officially spent more money than any Legislature in the 163-year history of the state. This $6.3 billion dollar budget even trumps the record deficit spending levels enacted during the last two years when the state’s budget grew by an unsustainable 21 percent n nearly a billion dollar increase. Because so much of this new budget was built with one-time federal dollars that will not be available next year, Iowans will be looking at over a $900 million dollar shortfall next session. Families and employers are living within their means and making difficult financial decisions every day, yet Iowa’s politicians refuse to follow their lead and keep government living within its means.

However, the record-setting budget spending was just the beginning of the last-minute spending spree added to the state’s credit card. In the closing hours of this session, legislative Democrats at the request of Gov. Culver passed three bonding bills totaling approximately $890 million. After all the fees and interest are added in, this new spending will cost taxpayers almost $1.7 billion. College freshmen will be 50 years old before this debt is paid off.

Even though legislators dug a deep fiscal hole for the state, legislative Republicans with the help of Iowans were successful in stopping a bill that would eliminate federal deductibility and raise taxes on Iowa families and businesses in every tax bracket. Earlier this spring, hundreds of Iowans packed the galleries of the House of Representatives to protest this proposal. When the speaker of the House disagreed with their views, they were removed from the chamber. The public was removed from a public hearing n 600 employers were kicked out of the people’s house by one employee.

Legislative Democrats focused a lot of their time on spending, taxing and borrowing, but there was no time expended and no legislation enacted that would have helped the over 80,000 Iowans out of jobs. Iowans asked the Legislature for leadership in creating jobs and did the Legislature listen to the people of Iowa? The simple answer is "no." I offered an ambitious solution that would immediately initiate the creation of sustainable jobs, but since Republicans are currently not in control, the legislation did not even receive a hearing n let alone a vote. Instead, Gov. Culver and his allies pushed four major anti-jobs bills that would significantly increase taxes and severely cripple the ability for small businesses and employers to create jobs. With the help of Iowans, we succeeded this session in stopping their progress, but the next legislative session will be here before we know it.

Ever since the seven activist justices on the Iowa Supreme Court struck down Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act, Republicans have been fighting to give the citizens a chance to have a vote on this important and emotional issue. The branches of government have divergent views on the definition of marriage and I believe the only way to solve this issue is to give the people of Iowa a chance to be the final arbiters. Unfortunately, Gov. Culver, Sen. Gronstal and every Senate Democrat continues to block the attempts we have made to allow Iowans a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment.

In the coming weeks and months, I will continue to advocate the common-sense Republican message of less spending, less taxation, more jobs and a greater voice for Iowans. I believe we must be focused on growing Iowa n not government - and we must re-establish the notion that it is Iowans who run government and not the other way around.

Paul McKinley of Chariton, a Republican, is minority leader of the Iowa Senate.