The Muscatine Journal Editorial Board posted an article on their website this morning:

What does the Muscatine High School Student Council have in common with the Iowa Legislature?

Both taught their superiors a lesson Monday about bullying.

Kudos go to the students. For MHS teachers and administrators, the students conducted a dress rehearsal of an anti-bullying presentation. MHS seniors Taylor Wettach and Jasmine Brent, sophomores Dawn Eichelberger and Giles Joslyn, and freshmen Tony Vo and Sierra Sagastume asked the staff to break into groups and participate in some activities that focused on including others.

They will make their presentation for real this weekend in Chicago at the Leadership Experience and Development Conference for the National Association of Student Councils student leaders and advisers.

It’s too bad Pat Murphy, a Dubuque Democrat and Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives, missed the students’ presentation.

Hearing it might have spared him from the egg he found on his face over a union-backed prevailing wage bill. The bill would have set standards for minimum pay and benefits on government projects.

After failing to pass the bill last week, Murphy kept voting machines in the Democratic-controlled House open from about 6 p.m. Friday until 1 p.m. Monday. His goal was to persuade — a nice, political term for bully — at least one of five Democrats who had voted against the bill to change his or her vote.

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From a Des Moines Register Article today:

A labor union gets free office space in a public building and its president’s salary is paid by taxpayers – an arrangement that a state lawmaker says is inappropriate.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Rep. Erik Helland, a Grimes Republican, said Wednesday.

Polk County gives American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1868 a small office in the county’s administration building in Des Moines.

The county also pays the $59,271 salary for the union’s full-time president, Dan Riley, and granted him a leave of absence from his county maintenance job.

The arrangement for the free office and full salary dates to 1979, records show.

“As a Polk County taxpayer, it just drives me nuts,” said Helland. “My tax money is going to house a union that is often adversarial to the county.

Continue reading at the Des Moines Register’s site

House Republican Leader Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) issued the following statement after the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) met today and released new revenue estimates.

“Legislative Democrats have spent this state into a hole. They increased spending by nearly a billion dollars, they raised taxes to balance the budget and now the REC says there will be a net revenue of only $7 million for 2010.

The irresponsible and bloated budget passed by Democrats mixed with the current economic crisis the country is in, is what has led to the start of economic downturn in Iowa.

Looking at the REC estimate is like looking at any stock portfolio, it has plummeted. This problem is not going to be solved by more of the same, rhetoric and falsehoods. It’s going to take tough leadership, tightening of the state’s fiscal belt and accountable government, which is what the House Republicans are offering to Iowans.”

An article in the Chicago Tribune today also touched on the problems the state may face in the future. Charles Krogmeier, director of the Department of Management and head of the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) said:

“There’s no question the Iowa economy is slowing down”

Despite this, Democrats still say there is nothing wrong. A statement from House Speaker Murphy said “Despite uncertainty in the national economy, Iowa’s economy continues to be on solid ground due to Democrats’ fiscal responsibility and our focus on renewable energy.”

Des Moines Register: Flat Iowa revenue means trouble ahead, some argue

Chicago Tribune: Panel: Iowa slowdown will reduce tax collections

The Quad City Times wrote an article yesterday regarding the House Democratic leadership releasing a “binder full of dirt…to reporters last week.” The last line of the article reads:

“The state Democratic leadership tactics represent the worst of Iowa partisan politics. Please leave the smear tactics and Jerry Springer out of this.”

Source: Quad City Times

Read the full article after the jump…