The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is expressing its disappointment with Governor Chet Culver’s decision to make an across-the-board cut in the state’s fiscal year 2010 budget.
Farm Bureau president Craig Lang says Culver’s action will result in a 251 million dollar property tax hike to fund education. “Although the Governor said he will not burden Iowans with a tax hike to balance the budget, that’s exactly what he’s doing,” Lang says. “A property tax increase is a tax increase”.
The Farm Bureau had urged Culver to call a special session of the legislature to explore all budget-cutting options, rather than implementing an across-the-board cut. Lang says Farm Bureau will ask the governor and state leaders to redesign the state’s budgeting process during next year’s legislative session. In his words, “the state’s default process of leaning on property taxpayers has to stop.”
Latest: 
