anit all begins right now. gd morning, and we're glad you're with us. one week from tomorrow, iowa lawmakers from all corners of the state return to their elected offices in des moines. some battles are already expected. education funding and tax relief are sure to get plenty of attention. others wont surface until all 150 laakers are again gathered at 1007 e grand ave, home to the iowa state hou. joining me this morning to sort through what we know so far about the 2016 session are a handful of your local lawmakers. gentlemen, thanks f starting. on my left, chris hall, in the center, ron jorgensen,

house, and here, t the state senator, rick bertrand. thanks for taking to time to set the slates. >> thanks for having us. >> l's talk briefly of what's going to happen. a week from now, you head back, and there's interesting deadlines right awaway. two weeks before you report bills, i think it was called. within a month, bills are issued, give folks at home, briefly, whoever wants to jump in, the time frame -- we know of ththdebate part of it. what happens to get the ball rolling. >> the legislative session, runs on a 100 day calendar this year, that - >> in theory. >> yeah, but it also comes with certain proceduraleadlines, to keep the legislaturere on track. >> andhe new speaker of the house, the first time a woman heldhat position, your reaction to that? >> i don't think it'll be a lot of change. she's been in leadership since i've been in the lerg over the

five years, and she's worked closely with the out going speaker. speaker paulson. they think a lot alike. and she's dedicated to trying to move the session along. >> state revenues are growing, but not growing as quickly as projected.d. how seriouss the budget situation, when you look at the dollars that are there,, pretty much taking up new expenses with no allocations at all? >> you'll see, this is predictable. we took some big bites, big steps with commercial propertrty tax reform, education reform, and when you drew this out five years ago, orr three years ago, we're where we thought we'd be. spending has to catch up with growth. we continue to spend 99% of what we take in, but there's not a

we need to slow the spending down in th state. it's an election year, and a lot of this is a big year for policy, things that don't cost money, and i think,he session again, there's some issues that come up for the most part, prty smooth. >> you hear often that iowa doesn't have a spending problem, but a revenue problem. >> the democrats will try to rally around the allocation, and at the end of the day, our test scores are up, graduations are up, we're spending6% of the $8 million budget,t, the economy in iowa is solid. >> chris, do you agree with that >> i have a slightly different take on that. as far as the manement of the current government, there's issues that'll probably impact the way negotiations of the session. you have a governor who vetoed

and he's closed mental health institutes, and pushingorwaward with a mess of medicaid. [inaudible]. and all of these things, [inaudible]. on top of that, say, the budget, hasn't been managed well over the past several years. senator rick bertrand is correct in that we've obligated a large share of that to causes. they've committed over $670 million to property tax relief. and that's important, but we have t to kee other eye on the ball. but the past several years, it's time to fund education. >> ron, is your position in the education world, not only in private sector,r, but the legislature, your take of what's happening with the education? you're in the middle of that.

we've de over $500 million in additional spending. we passed an education reform initiative, in fact, the -- when you look up the makeup of the pie, tre's only two areas that haveve grown, that's medicaid and k-12 education. all have grown. we're highest percent of the budget spent,f k through 12, that's the largest it's en in over 30 years. we have prioritized education, we made great strides therere, and we'll continue to spend our money wisely and efficiently to make sure that we're not ovovercommitting. that was the problem a number of years. before we came into legislature,

commitments we made to education, because we were overspending. if we allocated the aid that the democrats wanted, for '16 and '17, that would have cost us over $440 million, we would be looking at across the board cuts right now. we can't do that. we'll continue to do what we have done, and make sure that we can honor r commitments. increase. >> and it's an electionear, and they'll go after the big thing, educaon, and they did last year. parade it go kids into the capital, and say we traded property tax for educationon. they've never received so much money as right now. the enrollment is up, and building more schools, there's never a mass layoff.

is run very well, and it'll be an interesting year. >> and hear the senator say there's not going to be layoffs, but the issue wh that is fewer and fewer dollarsre actually reaching the children in the classroom. the whole education reform initiative, the truth is it's putting more staff in place, but they can't teach in the classroom. so you sti see larger classroom ses, and children receiving less attention than otherwise. >> one of the questions, education needs to do a better job of providing the information of where the money is actually been spent? >> the way t improve the outcomes, is to improve the instruction. that's what the rorm does, it improves the instruction, and it does and will. if you talk to superintendent,

education reform initiative is doing, it is benefitting the kids in this district, will having improved test scores. >> and tim, the reason we're having the overcrowding in the schools, ishey're moving in because we passed a large historic tax reform in the past year. these are growing things, a city and community, most are begging for these types of problems. you break down the dollars spent in the city of sioux city, the 6,300 that you see on the books, is 9,600 dollars of what's coming into the community. democratare on the run. >> and yet, iowa sti ranks barely in the middl with education spent per

>> there's a whole complexity of things that are happening with the budget. the obligation made several years ago,o, to cut the propey taxes. anand the senator might say these are talking points, but they're not. they're the truth and the reality, and i'll stick to it. when you go in the session, you'll see a smaller ending budget in the state budget - blanks in the state budget. it's been reduced steadily every year. we can't cut taxes in t prosrity, we have to invest inn students and schools. whenen committed $670 million over the past three years to tax cuts, we have to make sure that hools come first here. >> you're getting two on one here. we used about hal our time this

and education. it's obvio no many paramount issues that you'll b discussing. we'll take a break, and come back and we'll look at the

the break, stay with us. and welcome back, before we change gears, we want to talk about one more education issue, and it's one that representative ron jorgensen is in the middle of. a piece of legislation that's still written, that could have implications in sioux city. >> yeah, it has some issues with the education funding formula. it's been well written and talked about on property tax, as it relates to the forormula. her districts have problems with transportation inequities, and there's one -- two affffect sioux city greatly. there's a bill in the works right now, as we speak that addressed that. it's -- addresses that, it's

the infrastructure funding. now, expires on 2029, and we're looking at extending that to 2049. which would be a great benefit for sioux citybecause of t the continueneedssor financing, and funding new schools, d replacing some of the old schools that are here. but tying that into the funding inequities by capping that rate, that they're getting right now, and using the growth of the sales tax, coming in to address the fuing. we realize there's not enough money on the state budget as w talked about, to have the state pay more money, we're not going raise propertyaxes, but let's take an existing reven stream, cap it for ahile, and address the fundin inequities, that would benefit sioux city greatly and ononce the buckets are filled, we'll r remove the cap then too. i thin that has developingg

hopefully get some movement on it. >> and something to keep our eyes on. medicaid is the governor's plan to move that to the private sector, and obviously in the forerefront. it'll happen, it's been delayed a bitit. with the federal announcement a week ago. what does that do to the session going i before you can get srted. how much can lawmakers do to direct that? >> well, it was just last week, andhe governor despite all good advice, and counsel from his own party, continued to forge ahead with this plan. thank goodness the federal centers for medicicaid, came in an demanded a delay. havee heard for weeks, the medicaid patients with families, and they're all told they have to switch their health care

a crunch time line,t doesn't givehem a sense of which providers have signed contracts, what the implications are long term. the governor, and we sat down with the department ofuman services director last week, but they have so many questions, that it's really past the point of scandal. i'm hoping as we go into session, keep it in the building and get the answers from the administration. at least buy us some time to figure out, what we can do to help people, and have the information. >> and used the word scandal, is there angst? >> with the contracts, to the private sector, you're seeing a valid process. i take the phone calls, and changing the case managers, and

through. with the contracts signed with individual plans, the individual providers signing up, there's windows and stopgaps put in place. there's always anxiety with change. but it'll be good for the state, and provovide better servivice. this again, puts a process in place, but with t process, comes savings to the state, and that allows us to provide more services to the people. there's a transition here. and i love it, the party that t couldn't build a website for amacare, gives us the advice. we'll get through this. >> why did it -- why wasn't it a yearlong deal? >> you're seeing the p process in place, that shows the flexibility. you bring the private sector in,

they're letting theroviders catch up. with tgh cases, those people are able to change p plans a move with their providers, as thth thing grows. growing pains,ut it'll provides the substantial savings, for moreerves to more people. we need to cool the rhetoric, it's a talking point to scare ople, but we'll get through this and be fine. >> ron wants to get in here quick. >> it's a great idea, medicaid is growing way too fast. it used to be 12% of the budget pie, and now it's over 20%. we h to do something. i think this is a s sepn the right direction, if it means waiting a couple of months to get the process right, great. process is everything, and you want to make sure it's implemented properly. but there were some issues, along the lines of getting the

so the people needed to know who was in their plans to make a decision, on which company they'll go with. so by waiting two months, that'll help the processss a bit. i don't think that's bad. the budget ramifications i've heard is an additional $14 million that we'll have to find savings somewhere else, to make up for that. if it means doing that to get it right, that's fine. >> i want to tack on, they both talk about the process. the real issue here is not a talking point is the process that's been so flawed. many states have gone to a private medica management type of service. but none of them have done it in this time crunch. the on thing i'll say, if you

correctly, it's reflected in how it's viewed by the public. e approval ratings are below that of president back obama. >> i want to move ahead and talk about the bully bill. this comes back in your wheel house. you spearhead it had fight on that -- spearheaded the fight on this. one that was against the major passed last year, he's no longer seing. is there any reaso to believe, we can get something in writing and enacted involving the bully protection in iowa? >> the governor just issued the executive order that does essentially for the most part, what we tried to do over the past three years. i've been in favor of the antibully bill and we passed it tough iowa housese, or the house education committee, three straightears.

-- many issues. we thought we were closer last ar yooer, and it -- year, and it ended up not going anywhere. so the executive order, i don't see, a any disssion with that executive order in place on the bully bill this year. not in the house. >> again, i think that ron says it best, the governor has taken this intois own hands. bullying is a serious issue. i wish he would spend the efforts s moving forward and jump on board with us. with things like the property tax, and funding highway 20, we've done what we needed to get done, when it comomes to the bully bill, but the end of the day, we'll move forward. >> and somome things here quickly. minimum wage? anything to move with thhat? >> people are surprised to

than 3% on the borders, we have an age issue on the borders. i actually sat with democrats, and criticized heavily for it, they don't understand my position. anybody in the labor market, knows we're paying more than 850, or $9 or $10. it's a talking point,t's an election year, we need to move foard. >> whaabout medical marijuana? the use of that for medical purposes? >> i don't think that'll happen. >> i don't sense that it will either. the conversation has moved forward in a thougful way. we've had parents that come up in the past few years, some of them with children with severe epilepsy, and you talk about the

and what you c can do to help people, wh some form of truly medical beneficial results, i think that seeing the parents and seeing the children, helps to talk about it, and a very good format, where it moves forward, it could still be a few years do the line. >> lastly inhe last minute. caucuses are still ahead, is that a distraction or attraction to the guys that serve? how does that p py in the legislative session? >> i think people are coming in are engaged. it's fun to go out and g to know the c candidate possibly the next president of the united states. it's fun, and great for the state, great for iowa politics. >> it's not going to affect what we'rerying to do in iowa. i would agree with the senator. people are e engaged, but it's not going to slow us down. >> folks all settled up with where you'll support the

>> yeah, i'm a rubio guy. i'm looking for someonet the en of the day, we can't lose focus of beaeating hilary clinton. >> and jeb bush, a guy that's shown proven leadersp. >> and i'm supporting hilary clinton, in the modern presency, there's never a person as qualified as she is, and it's time that our daughter and is nieces have someone they can look up to. and let us kn how you feel of today's discussion, join the conversation on facebook, twitter, or e-mail. ck with this week's nine

this. and to get you set for the first full week of the new year, nine things to know. the top of the list -- what a difference a year or two can make. january 6th 2014, the midwest experiences life threateningly low temperatures and forces over 2,500 flight cancellations; the tunnel of arctic air called the "polar vortex," now it the el nino delivering just the

the siouxland humane society gourmet double chocolate caramel apple orders now thrgh february 7 call 252-2614. apples available f february h and wednesday, february 10th. january 8, 1980 ncaa decides to spoor women's championships in five sports. storm lake community ood drive tuesday, january 5, 2016 buena vista regional medical ceer specialty clinic :30pm. food drive eagle scout food drive project, saturday, january 9 at 8am. zach murphy's gle scout project for the foodbank of siouxland to help fight hunger sioux city. fareway sergeant road. hairball retruns nuary 8th at six city convention center. one show only. country up and com kane brown friday, january 8, anthem hard rock casino. in 2014, a cover of "i don't dance" and 60,000 video shares changed 21 year old kane brown's life forever. cnos fouation 10th annual basketball classic january 7-9, tyson events center. two dozen siouxland teams will

days of competition. tickets at the box office. "cruzin' to caucus iowa bus tour." ted cruz hitting 36 counties in six days, january 4 through january 9. much of northwest iowa from lyon to monona county. that'll do it for this week, the first sunday of the new wreer. we hope you keep us on your schedule each week, in the meantime, have a great week, and join us next week for this week in siouxland. captioning provided by: (music) >>sabrina: coming up, one-on-one with martin o'malley. we talk campaign strategy with the democratic presidential candidate and how does he feel about his rivals? >>amanda: plus, what life is really like on the campaign trail. and he'll even break out his guitar for us. it's all coming up on this week in iowa. (music) >>amanda: thanks everyone for joining us here on this week in iowa. >>sabrina: we're joined today for the whole half hour by martin o'malley, a democratic presidential candidate. and thank you so much for joining us. thanks for >>mr. o'malley: thank you both. >>sabrina: bearing the cold weather. (chuckling)

here. at home in maryland