Legislative briefings begin Saturday

    Local residents will have a chance to voice their concerns over state politics Saturday morning. State Senator Sandra Greiner and State Representative Jarad Klein will be in the courtroom at the Washington County Courthouse from 10 a.m. to noon to answer questions and report on what the Iowa Legislature will do this year. The Legislature is about to end its first week in session.

     The format of the legislative briefings is that the two legislators start the event by giving a summary of what they?ve done at the Capitol. Then, each member of the audience has a turn to ask the legislators a question. Audience members are asked to limit their comments to two minutes.

    Klein said in an interview Thursday that he expects preschool to be a topic of discussion at the briefing.

    ?I?ve heard from folks who want to get rid of the state preschool program and return to a voluntary program,? he said. ?I anticipate that they?ll show up on Saturday. We?re trying to get the program to be what it was two years ago, when it was locally driven. We want to put the empowerment boards back in the driver?s seat.?

    Klein said he is aware that gun control has been discussed by local governments.

    ?I sit on the public safety committee, and guns is not an issue,? he said. ?We?re talking about how we can get drugs under control, and how to fully fund the State Troopers.?

    Klein is also on a committee that handles environmental issues. He said there has been a lot of discussion about Iowa?s Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) and how to get its board under control.

    ?The EPC is trying to mirror the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), which will be detrimental to agriculture in terms of the air quality standards it wants.?

    Greiner said she expects the recent budget cuts to be a hotly debated item. Culver recently cut about $85 million from the budget. Greiner said that the brunt of the cuts will be felt in western Iowa, but that eastern Iowa will not be immune from them.

For more, see our Jan. 13 print edition.