Democrats in the state legislature are looking to make cuts to make up for a drop in revenues, and areas ranging from early childhood education to county mental health will likely be affected.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal joined local state Sen. Tom Rielly and local state Rep. Eric Palmer at Smokey Row on Tuesday afternoon to go over challenges and goals for the 2009 legislative session, beginning on Jan. 12.

“It’s going to be a difficult year,” Gronstal said. “We’re going to get used to saying ‘no’ to a lot of people.”

There are two areas that state Democrats want to protect from cuts — the Iowa Power Fund and disaster recovery. Gronstal said the power fund has put Iowa five years ahead of others on renewable fuels and that Iowa is also ahead on wind energy.

“We’re going to figure out how to create a renewable fuel economy, we’re going to figure out how to not use foreign oil, we’re going to figure out how to solve global warming, right here in Iowa, and we’ve got to stay on the cutting edge,” Gronstal said.

Some areas likely to be hit with cuts include early childhood education and school district budgets.

Oskaloosa Community School District officials, along with districts from across the state, had lobbied for an increase in allowable growth from 4 percent to 6 percent. That is most likely not going to happen, and there may be a drop to that percentage from 4 percent during the session.

District Superintendent Carolyn McGaughey asked if districts should anticipate additional cuts. Gronstal replied that it was possible.

Plans to expand funding for the early childhood education program will also most likely be abandoned for the next session.

“One of my concerns is that we do maintain funding for the new pre-school program,” Palmer said.

“I think it is very important to the future of this state. I want to make sure that if we don’t expand the program this year that we at least maintain funding for it as it already was.”

For post-secondary education, Palmer wants the regents to keep tuition increases at the rate of inflation.

Palmer also said it’s critical that the Legislature does not go backwards in efforts to cover all children in Iowa with affordable and accessible health care.

“It’s going to be a flat budget year,” Palmer said.

To meet the demands of a Department of Transportation study that found the state needs to invest $260 million more into its roads and bridges, an increase to the gas tax and user fees is possible. Sen. Tom Rielly, who is the chairman of the Transportation Committee, said an increase of $0.10 would raise $110 million.