83rd Iowa General Assembly is history: "
The Iowa House adjourned the 2010 session of the 83rd General Assembly at 12:22 p.m. and the Iowa Senate followed suit at 12:48 p.m., meaning legislators are heading home. The Iowa legislators finished the session in 79 days — 21 less than normal, and the shortest since 1972 — as a means to save money in the midst of a recession.
Led by majority party Democrats in both chambers, in addition to setting a 2010-11 budget, lawmakers undertook a ‘reorganization’ that pared $250 million. They also addressed some social issues in raising fines for traffic violations, changing gun permitting laws and banning text messaging for most drivers.
Five Sioux City lawmakers have held forth during a general assembly for the last time (barring some veer and return to the chambers at a later date) — State Reps. Chris Rants, Wes Whitead and Roger Wendt, and State Sens. Ron Wieck and Steve Warnstadt.
Just before noon, prior to getting in the car for a drive on a nearly 80 degree spring day, Republican Rants (pictured yesterday after speaking in the House) griped via Twitter, On their way out of town, Dems give salary boost to state union workers, and salary freeze for non-union workers.
In an wrap-up statement, Democrat Warnstadt praised the reorganization efforts, balancing the budget without raising taxes and directing $145 million more to K-12 schools than this year, bringing the state investment in education to nearly $2.5 billion.
While he’s done addressing colleagues in the Capitol, Warnstadt noted he’ll still hold listening posts until his term is up in January 2011.
"(Via Politically Speaking.)
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