After nearly six months of wrangling, the members of the Iowa House and Senate put the finishing touches on a more than $7 billion dollar state budget plan and concluded the 2015 legislative session Friday afternoon. Republicans have spent the past months preaching fiscal restraint and House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, admits it was “a difficult year.”

Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Blufffs, argued for more money for schools and he said they leave the statehouse with “mixed emotions.”

In the end, legislators settled on a 1.25 percent increase in general state aid to schools, plus a one-time spending boost of $55 million on top of that. Governor Terry Branstad now has 30 days to review the legislature’s budget proposals, and he has the authority to use his “item veto” power to erase parts of the bills lawmakers passed.
For the third year in a row, legislators failed to pass the governor’s anti-bullying proposals. Lawmakers did pass a bill that sets a new school start date in late August. That came after the governor put schools on notice they wouldn’t get waivers anymore to start in early August and would have to start during the week in which September 1st falls. Among the issues that stalled: raising the minimum wage and legalizing fireworks.