As Iowa legislators finish up their second week of work at the capitol following the restart of the legislative session due to the COVID-19 pandemic, State Senator Amy Sincliar tells KNIA/KRLS News the legislators are taking precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19. She says her temperature is taken every time she walks into the building and every chamber is light on the amount of people in attendance as only necessary people are on the floor with no clerks or pages and some chairs are removed to keep people socially distant. Sinclair says every time she leaves the chamber to speak with anyone she puts on a mask out of courtesy for the health of the people she is talking to as well as her own. 

Prior to the restart of the session, discussions regarding the state budget were expected as it was unclear how the pandemic would affect the state financially. According to Senator Sinclair, despite revenues being down, she feels the state is still in a good place due to good budgeting over the past three years. She says the revenue estimating conference reconvened and came back with an estimate that state revenues would be down close to $380 million dollars from what they had been anticipating. She says the good news is with good budgeting, rainy day funds are full and emergency funds are all full as well so she hopes the state won’t see sharp cuts to this fiscal year’s budget. To listen to the complete interview with Senator Sinclair, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.