Work begins on Iowas next 8 billion state budget

DES MOINES — The process of crafting the next state budget began, procedurally speaking, Monday at the Iowa Capitol. Not all lawmakers were on board with the process. Majority-party Republicans on the Iowa Senate’s budget committee Monday advanced four bills that were, effectively, mere placeholders with no actual budget numbers in them. The bills eventually will establish state general fund spending for the budget year that begins July 1. To start the process, Republicans advanced through the first two steps of the legislative process — subcommittee and committee approval — empty budget bills for the state’s administrative services division, natural…