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Year after year, government spending ratchets upward. It’s so much easier to dream up new programs than to cut spending on existing ones. It’s more rewarding to hand out money and jobs than to make someone mad at you.

Lip service is paid to cutting spending, but relatively little is ever accomplished.

So it’s good to see the Republicans in the Iowa House come up with a reasonably specific list of places to cut spending.

The major items, with the Republicans’ savings estimates, are:

Eliminate “phantom employees,” i.e., unfilled and funded full-time employee positions. Savings: $25 million.

Reduce pay for all state employees and officials on a sliding scale of a 2 percent cut for salaries of $40,000 to a 10 percent cut for salaries greater than $100,000. Savings: $72.5 million.

Charge state employees a monthly fee for health insurance premiums. Savings: $17.8 million.

Sell the vehicle fleet and outsource vehicle leasing. Savings: $34 million.

Reduce office supplies, service contracts and equipment purchases. Savings: $10 million.

Combine all state information technology systems. Savings: $20 million.

Sell or lease the Iowa Communications Network. Savings: $15 million.

Reduce funding for library acquisitions at Regents institutions by 50 percent. Savings: $13.5 million.

Forgo Department of Natural Resources land acquisition for fiscal 2010. Savings: $5 million.

Freeze out-of-state travel. Savings: $1.5 million.

The greatest strength of the list is that it deals in tens of millions of dollars, representing a significant impact.

The greatest weakness is that the lawmakers waited until April to type it up and present it.

Calculations such as these should be ready for discussion at the start of every session of the Legislature.