It’s week three of the 2018 Iowa legislative session and middle-of-the-year state budget cuts loom large. However, lawmakers say they’re still searching for answers on key details. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has proposed about 20 million dollars’ worth of cuts — and she’s suggested 10-million dollars won’t be spent in the Medicaid program which provides health care coverage for poor, disabled and elderly Iowa. Republican House Speaker Linda Upmeyer says that much savings in Medicaid seems “counter-intuitive.”
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Upmeyer says voting on mid-year budget cuts as soon as possible is the goal, who says state agencies have already begun to hold off on spending.
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Reynolds has recommended cutting the state prison budget by three-point-four million dollars. She’s also recommending a more than five-million dollar cut to the three state universities and a nearly two-million-dollar reduction for the 15 area community colleges. In addition to the 10-million-dollar projected savings in the state’s Medicaid budget, Reynolds recommends more than three-million dollars’ worth of cuts elsewhere in the Department of Human Services. The current year’s state budget runs through June 30th.
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