A proposed Iowa House of Representatives budget for the new fiscal year is out, but has some people scratching their heads.

District 23 Representative Ray Sorensen tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the House budget is about $90 million more than what the Senate or Governor Kim Reynolds have for their budgets. He expresses why their budget is so much higher.

“I’ll read through some examples of what makes our number higher. So first we have a $25 million increase in funding for Iowa nursing homes, $10 million more that’s in the Governor’s Governor’s budget. We have a $7 million increase for mental health care providers, a $10 million new funding for workforce grants given to students in one of Iowa’s high demand job areas like nursing, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) professions and educators. $2.8 million for new funding to provide ten professors at the University of Iowa College of Nursing and increase enrollment capacity by 30%. $2.8 million to fund STEM and Advanced Ag initiatives at Iowa State University, and $1.5 million in new funding for UNI (University of Northern Iowa) teacher education initiatives.”

Sorensen mentions that currently, the proposed budget from the House is $8.58 billion. He adds that all budget related bills are moving smoothly through committee discussions.