The Iowa Legislature yesterday sent SF 209 to the Governor. From the quotes I’ve seen, I don’t think the indigent defense appropriation is in danger of being vetoed, though there are some other provisions that he’s said he doesn’t like. Because he has the power to line-item veto, I don’t expect that indigent defense will be caught up in a veto of other provisions. I hope to have some good news by the end of the day, but we’ll see.
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My husband called the Governor’s office this morning about 8 AM and spoke to Albrecht (sp?) and he said it was on the Governor’s desk. Albrecht said he was confident that the Governor would sign the appropriation, that he just wanted to “study” the overall bill first. My husband called Cindy Mosher later and she said they were pretty confident that it would be signed, but if it wasn’t the Lobby Day would be on again.
Thanks again Erek and Dawn for your updates.
No problem, Pat. I’m so upset about this. When we lived in Maine (from 1982 to 1996), the contract attorneys were the first ones to not get paid if the State ran out of money before the end of the fiscal year. One year, my husband went 9 months without a check from the State. Try to explain that to your mortgage holder, etc. When we moved here, we were told that this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Iowa. Now, 15 years later, it has. When we were younger, we didn’t know how to fight the problem..we were raising two young sons and least I was working, so there was heating oil in the tank and food on the table. We’re both older now (obviously) and refuse to put up with this. BUT, I still won’t rest easy or trust any thing that is said until the actual checks begin to show up.
If I’m interpreting today’s Gazette correctly, don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Even though the Governor has line item veto, it sounded as if he still isn’t happy with SF209. If that’s the case, I have a feeling he won’t use the line item veto and just dump the entire bill. He said he is prepared to have the Legislative session go in to May.