OSKALOOSA — Saturday’s Eggs & Issues forum at Smokey Row cafe in Oskaloosa showed that Republicans Richard Arnold and Paul McKinley and Democrats Tom Rielly and Eric Palmer had very different opinions regarding Gov. Chet Culver’s budget.

In addition to the state budget, the panel discussed election day voting, the car title loan bill, the so-called bully bill, biofuels, and the Time 21 road funding proposal.

State Rep. Richard Arnold, R-Russell, was the first to speak at the forum. He began by saying that there were no controversial bills that came out of the three committees he sits on — transportation, local government, and natural resources — during this session. He brought up the Time 21 Fund proposal, put forth by the Iowa Department of Transportation, which suggests ways to overcome a projected shortfall in road funding.

Arnold said the Transportation Committee was studying the proposal and was looking at the various recommendations it contains.

Arnold then commented on Culver’s budget. He said that he believed the budget would result in a deficit. According to Arnold, spending is more than 10 percent higher, while revenues have only increased about 6 percent.

“The budget this year is coming in at 10.8 percent higher than it was last year, and the revenues are coming in about 6 percent over what they were last year. So, there’s a 4 percent deficit there that I don’t know how the majority party’s going to make up the difference,” said Arnold.

He said he wasn’t sure the new cigarette tax would close the gap.

“We did pass the cigarette tax out of the House and the governor signed it … I was told then yesterday (or) the day before, that in the southern two tiers of counties, that sales of cigarettes are down 60 percent … I don’t think these people have probably quit smoking, they’re probably going across the state line and buying their cigarettes and I can’t say as I blame them … I don’t think the revenue is going to come in like they think it will from the cigarette tax increase,” continued Arnold.

Arnold also talked about the same-day voting bill, with which he said he had some problems. “You can register the same day that you can vote and I don’t think that’s right … That leaves it open to a lot of fraud. It was presented to us that it was just like the Minnesota bill and it isn’t the Minnesota law at all. We tried to get an amendment on there that would allow for provisional voting, where the vote would have been held until it could be proven where these people were from. The way the bill is right now, once you vote, your vote’s counted, even though you aren’t who you say you are or where you’re from — the vote will still count,” said Arnold.

State Rep. Palmer, D-Oskaloosa, was next up, and he disagreed with Arnold’s assessment of the state’s budget. “I can give you a few points on the budget, which I think are important. The budget, which is for July 1, 2007, through June 30 of 2008, it will be a balanced budget. The state’s ‘rainy day funds’ will be at the highest levels ever. The cash reserve fund will be at its maximum of $442 million, the economic emergency fund at $136 million will be close to its maximum level. Medicaid will be funded, as will salaries. The senior living trust fund, which has been raided in recent years, will be at $140 million, nearly half of what we want in there. Budget wise, I think we’re doing some good things and I think we’re on the right course,” said Palmer.

Palmer addressed Arnold’s concerns about same-day voting. “We did pass Election Day voting and we looked at Minnesota as a guide and Minnesota’s had Election Day voting for about 30 years, I understand. There are about six states that do, and they’ve found that in those six states, they have about a 10 percent higher voter turnout. And I think that one of the things in our democracy you want to encourage is voter turnout. We want people to get out and vote and this is one way to do it … We talked to some of the people in Minnesota about the fraud issue and they said it’s almost non-existent.” explained Palmer.

Palmer singled out a couple of other bills he thought were important during the session — a bill to allow health insurance purchasing pools and an emergency communication bill that deals with the issue of interoperability between departments, which is the ability for different public service agencies to communicate with each other. The bill “establishes a board to develop standards so that we can help the various emergency providers communicate with one another,” said Palmer.

State Sen. McKinley, R-Chariton, was the next panelist to speak, and he agreed with Arnold about the potential for a state deficit, saying spending was up 10.8 percent, while revenues were up only 6.2 percent.

“We are seeing revenue increases of about 6.2 percent, that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, we’ve increased spending 10.8 percent. Now, that’s not a good thing. That means we’ve either got to raise taxes, or the economy will have to pick up steam, and I don’t think anybody expects our economy to grow at a rate of over 11 percent. And what I fear is, we’re creating more government, and government programs than our economy can support,” said McKinley.

McKinley said he was worried about the Election Day voter registration bill.