The Iowa legislature is currently working on budget cuts that have to be made to the current fiscal year.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn says there are seven joint sub-committees that are working on making those cuts. A bill headed to the Senate floor for consideration is looking to cut $52 million. However, Behn says one area that he’s heard won’t be affected is public school education.

“We’re going to try and hold the K-12 educational system harmless, we’re going to try and not reduce any of their budget. Since they’re the single biggest line item in our whole state budget, if we don’t touch that, that means other areas of the budget are going to have to take a bigger share of that reduction.”

Behn also wants to avoid having to make cuts for the community colleges in the state, because he sees them as a resource for higher education.

“Community college provides a great bang for the buck. They do an outstanding job of meeting the needs of the students. Whether they are a traditional student or a non-traditional student, they go out of their way to make sure those needs are met. So that’s another area of the budget quite frankly we are aware of, and we’re gonna try to be as careful with them as well.”

The preliminary areas where cuts are being considered are to public universities and community colleges, human services and the justice system.