The 86th Iowa General Assembly came to a close last week as lawmakers adjourned for the year.

District 24 State Senator Jerry Behn says several compromises had to be made in order for them to put together a budget before the next fiscal year started on July 1st.

“The ultimate deadline is nobody wants the (state) government to shut down.  So they recognize that deadline as being a hard and fast deadline and want to get things taken care of.”

Behn points out that when you have two different political parties running each Chamber-Republicans controlling the House and Democrats controlling the Senate-there are philosophical differences of how to handle each problem.  However, he commends all legislators for working to finally put together their just over $7 billion budget.

“And I got to throw a shout out to everybody in the legislature that has been working hard and they really have done their level best to try and come to an agreement between the House and the Senate.”

Behn’s only concern is that their budget is set up to spend more than they take in.  He believes that isn’t a sustainable financial way for state government.  The legislative session was suppose to end on May 1st.