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DES MOINES Majority Senate Democrats issued a fiscal 2016 budget outline Tuesday that calls for spending the same $7.341 billion proposed by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad but parts ways on his priorities by seeking a higher investment for K-12 schools for the coming school year.

Its time to break the budget gridlock, said Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Our balanced budget is sustainable and spends less than the state takes in.

Tuesdays announcement caught majority Republicans in the House by surprise and could draw out the negotiating process given that GOP legislators were operating under the assumption the Legislature would be working under joint spending targets, said Rep. Chuck Soderberg, R-LeMars, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Its disappointing I guess to know that theyve released their targets and not working on joint targets, Soderberg said.

The Senate Democratic plan calls for a 2.625 percent increase in state support for Iowas local schools, a tuition freeze for in-state students at Iowas regent universities for a third straight year, fully funding property tax credits and meeting 2013 commitments to property-tax relief and education reform. The plan includes an early-retirement incentive plan for eligible state employees that Democrats project will save the state $16.1 million in the next fiscal year.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Democrats have been working with majority House Republicans to resolve budget differences but decided to move ahead with spending targets Tuesday while Branstad and GOP legislators work to forge their consensus approach. House Republicans were at a $7.175 billion level for fiscal 2016, leaving a $166 million difference with the spending level set by the governor and now Senate Democrats.

We think its time to start moving our budgets, Gronstal said in an interview. He said Senate Democrats adopted the same use of $129 million from the states surplus ending balance to fund the overall 5 percent growth in general fund spending.

We figure thats an appropriate place to be, Gronstal said of the decision to adopt the governors overall spending level. We dont do everything in the budget the same way that the governor does it, but thats fiscally responsible. We know that well have challenges in the next fiscal year.

Soderberg said GOP lawmakers plan to stick with the budgeting principles not to spend more money than the state collects in yearly revenue and not to use one-time money to fund ongoing programs or expenses. He likened to do otherwise to a family using a savings account to pay for a home mortgage.

Weve stood firm on our prinicles for five years. I do not anticipate that that would change because I think Iowans expect that, he said. Anytime you spend more than what you have, that obviously creates a problem.

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Senate Democrats seek same spending level as Branstad

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) A technicality House Democrats raised Tuesday succeeded in stalling at least for a few days two of the Texas Legislature's top conservative causes, proposals that would allow the "open carry" of handguns and prohibit local ordinances banning hydraulic fracturing.

With Republicans controlling the Legislature and widely supporting both measures, outnumbered Democrats often resort to delay tactics, betting that the longer it takes to pass bills they oppose, the less total such proposals become law.

Legislators had braced for hours-long debate on both issues. But just a few minutes into discussion on the bill authorizing licensed Texans to carry their handguns holstered or otherwise in plain sight, Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer objected, citing House rules. He argued that three witnesses who testified on the bills while they were still in committee were incorrectly recorded in the official record.

Republicans convened immediate committee meetings to advance corrected versions of the bills. Both now will be eligible to return to the floor on Friday, though the exact timing hasn't yet been set.

Martinez Fischer, of San Antonio, said afterward of open carry that his "aim was to confront that piece of legislation by any means possible."

Its sponsor, Sherman Republican Rep. Larry Phillips, called the error a "procedural glitch" that occurred because the committee was hearing two bills at once.

Martinez Fischer's efforts succeeded in derailing a House vote to overturn Texas' post-Civil War ban on the open carry of handguns as the state strides toward becoming America's largest to legalize the practice.

A similar measure already cleared the Senate. More than 800,000 state residents have concealed handgun licenses.

Phillips, who noted the measure still has 80-plus House co-sponsors, said approval would still come as quickly as possible.

"When they don't have the votes," he said of Martinez Fischer's maneuver, "they look for every other way to kill it."

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Democrats stall 'open carry,' fracking bills on technicality

WASHINGTON The lead GOP sponsor of a sex trafficking bill that's stalled over abortion offered a new plan Tuesday to resolve the impasse, but Democrats immediately rejected it, leaving any resolution unclear.

The continued gridlock promised to prolong a months-long delay in confirming President Barack Obama's attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, since Senate Republican leaders have decided to hold up her vote until the trafficking bill is dealt with.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas proposed reworking a victims' fund in the bill, but Democrats said his approach didn't resolve their concern about expanding abortion funding prohibitions in existing law.

"That is a bridge we are not going to allow to be crossed," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Cornyn said Republicans were trying to accommodate Democrats' reservations. "I don't know how in the world they could possibly object when we're answering, responding to their concerns," he said.

Murray countered that Democrats have offered Cornyn nine different deals and he's shot them all down.

Still, the back-and-forth suggested a continued interest in resolving the issue as senators returned to Capitol Hill from a two-week spring recess.

The bill to help sex trafficking victims had been widely popular until it got stuck in a partisan dispute over the abortion funding provision, which Democrats claim they initially hadn't known was in the legislation.

Language banning the use of taxpayer funds for abortions has been included for decades in Congress' annual spending bills, but the trafficking bill would extend that to a new pot of money made up of fees paid by sex criminals. Democrats say they can't accept that.

Lawmakers of both parties have offered various ways out of the conundrum without success. Cornyn's latest idea involves funneling the criminal fees into the general treasury and using the treasury as the source for money in the victims' fund. Democrats say that doesn't solve their fundamental problem with the bill.

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Senate Democrats reject latest GOP offer on trafficking bill

2 Massachusetts Democrats voice unhappiness with Pelosi
WASHINGTON (AP) Two Democratic stalwarts from Massachusetts are suggesting that Rep. Nancy Pelosi should leave the party #39;s leadership team in Congress afte...

By: Holly Brown

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2 Massachusetts Democrats voice unhappiness with Pelosi - Video

Pres. Obama getting unwanted help from Democrats who are demanding a say in Iran nuke deal

By: Joe Scarborough

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Pres. Obama getting unwanted help from Democrats who are demanding a say in Iran nuke deal - Video