The Iowa legislature is one-step closer to finalizing budget figures for the current fiscal year.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn says at the beginning of the year, lawmakers were faced with having to cut $50 million of the state’s budget. However, the burden lessened to $35 million due to the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) and their projections in mid-March. The REC is what lawmakers use when determining each year’s budget, as well as any appropriations. The bulk of the cutbacks, about $11 million, is slated for public universities such as the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. Behn explains why the University of Northern Iowa was exempt from the proposed cutbacks.

“The University of Northern Iowa has a large population of in-state students. And so it disproportionally affects the University of Northern Iowa as opposed to Iowa State and the University of Iowa that has a lot of out-of-state students, and they pay a different rate than in-state students do. We really thought it was more of a fairness issue.”

Behn says other areas that lawmakers wanted to keep from having to endure cutbacks included: Medicaid, k-12 education, public safety with Iowa State Patrol, non-school transportation and property tax cutbacks.

Now that the de-appropriation bill is on the governor’s desk to be finalized, Behn notes that they are currently working on the next fiscal year’s budget that starts July 1st.