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Iowa Auditor David Vaudt visited Marshalltown Friday, talking about the condition of the state's budget and told members of the Marshall County Pachyderm Club the issues were known far in advance.

"The whole state has been warned for the past two years that this was coming," he said.

Vaudt presented an updated version of a slide show presentation looking at the state's finances. He noted that funds such as those used for the state's Senior Living Trust Fund and Tobacco Trust Fund have been raided to the point where they are merely shadows of their former selves. He noted that some legislators will point to the amount of money they put into the Senior Living Trust Fund.

"They will tell you they put $252 million in, but they won't show you the balance, which at the end of fiscal year 09 was $27 million," he said. "As fast as they are putting it in one end, they are taking it out the other."

Vaudt also noted that there are significant gaps developing between the state's revenue and the expenditures. The only option the state will have, at its current rate of spending, is to raise taxes or cut expenditures, which usually means payments to local governments.

In essence, he argued such cuts are a tax hike, as local governments are forced to compensate by raising property taxes.

"We simply cannot grow the revenue enough to keep up with the state's insatiable desire to spend," he said.

In order to do so, Vaudt said the most recent numbers indicate the state would need to grow revenue by 14.4 percent. That simply cannot be done even in the best of economic times.

In an economy that is struggling and seeing historically high unemployment figures, it is even harder.

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Contact Ken Black at 641-753-6611 or kblack@timesrepublican.com