The 2020 Iowa General Assembly starts this week, and as always one of the big topics on everyone’s minds will be the State’s budget.

State Senator Jake Chapman, (R) District 10, says the Legislature is once again walking into a good financial situation this session, as they are expected to have a surplus of around $300 million. The Legislature’s Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) projects a 3% increase in revenues during the current fiscal year, growing the State’s overall budget to around $8.2 billion. In spite of that surplus, Chapman emphasizes the continuation of the responsible spending that led to it, and says their job will be to prioritize where and how much of it to spend. “You know, we’ll get all of the budget committees together, and start going through that process of what the priorities are going to be. We need to continue to prioritize things like education, things like mental health. And continue to build off of what we’ve done over these last few years.”

To hear more from Chapman about the 2020 legislative session, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.