The second Carroll Chamber of Commerce sponsored Legislative Forum is scheduled for Saturday morning, with state Senator, Mark Segebart, and House Representative, Brian Best, answering questions of their constituents throughout the county. At the first forum two weeks ago, one attendee, Mary Bruner, posed a question about the proposed defunding that will impact the Department of Human Services (DHS). She asked both legislators if they truly believed that this department would be able to function, especially in light of two recent starvation deaths of Iowa teens, Natalie Finn and Sabrina Ray. Segebart says that although the department had over-appropriated by about $10 million dollars at the onset of the budget year, he is still not happy with the idea of a reduction.
Segebart says the system let those girls down and he believes that legislation will be born from what has happened. He says there might be more strict requirements for doctor visits on foster and home-schooled children. He also says that timing of doctor’s visits and eating patterns of the girls may have played into why their particular situations were not immediately evident to state authorities.
Best adds that speaking directly to the budget for this, they have discussed it on the House side and are continuing to hold these conversations.
This topic, as well as K-12 school funding, potential de-appropriations to community colleges and the judicial system have all been hotly debated in the legislature over the past two weeks and could possibly be brought back up at Saturday’s forum, to be held in Room 142 at Des Moines Area Community College in Carroll from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
