Iowa is in the middle of its worst budget crisis in history; of course I am sure that you are aware of that. Our esteemed governor Chet Culver has been attempting to look like he has been working on the problem. The thing is, he hasn't, and instead he seems to be contributing to the problem. Yesterday the states Legislative Services Agency published a new document on Iowa fiscal issues. These are very normal documents that explain how the State of Iowa is managing our money.

Last month Chet Culver announced across the board budget cuts of 1.5 percent. It was generally held that it was not enough to prevent the state from running a deficit, but it was a start. The across the board cuts were supposed to strike all government departments and programs equally. No one was supposed to be spared. However, one of the latest LSA documents published tells a different story entirely.

The LSA Fiscal Topic document in question deals with the states Recreational Trails Program. The programs original intent was to build 2000 miles of multiuse recreational trails by the year 2000. The program was a horrible failure. We are now eight years beyond the original end date with only 1,455 miles of recreational trails built to date. Our state in its infinite wisdom decided to keep this failed program on life support so it could suck some more of our hard earned tax money away from more worthy projects like the public infrastructure. So for the last eight years Iowans have been footing the bill for a failed program that has probably done more to pad contractor's pockets than anything else. As you can plainly see, this program is the epitome of a bloated and unnecessary government program. It is not essential to the operation of the state.

Now as we begin 2009 the state is in dire financial straights. We are faced with a deficit the likes of which we have never seen in our state. Our governor has gone through the motions of cutting the budget and trying to save money where he can, but that is all it is, just motions. He has announced what is supposed to be across the board universal budget cuts that will affect every program and every department. This however is not the case according to the aforementioned LSA document. According to this document rather than suffering a budget cut, the Recreational Trails Program actually received a budget increase.

I will admit that Culver talks a good game, but when you get right down to it his actions do not match his words. With the leadership triumvirate of Culver/Gronstal/McCarthy you can rest assured that fiscal responsibility is one term that you will not be able to associate with the government of Iowa.