The Iowa House and Senate last week released a Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 joint budget target of $6.9718 billion, which is slightly less than the governor’s proposed budget of $7.0009 billion. The last time there was an agreement on joint budget targets was in 2004.

The FY2015 joint budget target would spend 99.8 percent of the ongoing revenue, which is projected to be $6.983 billion. It will also spend ...