In the first month of the legislative session it’s common to see heads of large departments visit a committee to explain their budget requests. In January, the Department of Transportation asked for $259 million dollars for its highway division. The DOT set aside $13 million a year to buy 225,000 tons of salt. Normally they use 156,000 tons in a season. In February, Iowa received record or near record amounts of snowfall and the DOT used a lot of salt on the roads. They’ve already used around 220,000 tons and they need start getting another 124,000 tons to begin replenishing salt sheds for next winter. This week, the DOT’s budget contained a supplemental appropriations of $8.7 million to do this. That will come out of this fiscal year’s budget. When all of the snow from February started to melt in March, many communities flooded. More than half of Iowa’s counties have been approved for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration. The Missouri River runs along much of Iowa’s western