Very bad news this week for both Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported the second quarter economic growth by state (GDP). Iowa’s economic growth was a negative .7%, dead last among all 50 states. Of the 50 states, 48 had positive growth in this period. Only Iowa (-.7%) and South Dakota (-.3%) had a negative growth rate.
While one quarter’s performance doesn’t predict future growth, it’s a huge embarrassment for the Iowa Republican Party. The Republican Governor and the GOP control majorities in both branches of the Legislature and have driven Iowa’s economy to last place in the nation. They can’t blame the Democrats for this economic disaster.
This latest economic data simply confirms what most Iowans already know. Republicans’ mismanagement of state government has led Iowa to a budget train wreck. Under their management they have taken a budget surplus of nearly $1 billion in 2013 to a budget deficit this past year. In the Reynolds regime’s struggle to balance the state budget this past year, they slashed spending by $118 million and ended up borrowing another $144 million to end the budget year. One wonders if former Governor Terry Branstad didn’t foresee the budget mess he and Reynolds were creating and decided to abandon ship by taking the China gig.
The new legislative session begins in January and the state budget starts out in a big hole. Reynolds is obligated to begin to pay back the $144 million borrowed in 2017. In addition, the cuts they made in 2017 have left many state departments and agencies struggling with the previous cuts.
Reynolds’ budget cuts have devastated Iowa’s schools from K-12 through and including our public universities. Reynolds has achieved last place in the nation in economic growth. Will Reynolds continue to starve public schools with budgets that put Iowa in last place in education? Iowa’s public universities are on track to raise tuition by an unsustainable 35% over five years thanks to the Republicans’ budget mismanagement. Reynolds is allowing the University Regents to balance her budget on the backs of Iowa college students. With Iowa student college debt at an all-time high, these proposed tuition hikes are unacceptable.
Reynolds’ Medicaid privatization is already in crisis and headed toward catastrophe. One of the three insurance companies have pulled out and the other two have failed to adequately meet the needs of Iowa’s most vulnerable residents. It certainly appears the just announced 3% increase won’t meet the needs of these 600,000 Iowans. The potential economic repercussions from an out-of-control $5 billion dollar Medicaid program could devastate the state budget.
Iowans can’t accept a governor and a Republican legislature that are satisfied with last place in economic growth. Iowans want and deserve leaders that are problem solvers, not just budget cutters. Anyone can simply cut budgets. It takes leadership to set priorities, grow our economy, improve educational opportunities and protect Iowa’s most vulnerable citizens. Reynolds has failed the test of leadership and it’s time for a change.
by Rick Smith
Posted 11/22/17
12 Comments on "Iowa Now Dead Last In GDP Growth Under All-Republican Control"
It’s time for the GOP to accept responsibility of the financial mess and leadership they have given to Iowa. It’s time for voters in Iowa to show their displeasure through the ballot box.
Wow. We have now out-Kansas’ed Kansas! Way to go, Iowa GOP! (Oh, and we hired the guy who ran Kansas’ Medicaid (into the ground) to run ours.)
I am SO thrilled.
As Iowa enters the Dark Ages, we can thank our GOP leaders for giving us nothing but heartaches and poor decisions. We can change the future by voting for some dedicated citizens who really care about our state.
Probably because they are more worried about saving money on the backs of the state employees than they are in making our products marketable. What happen to Brandstad going to China to promote corn sales and other issues? Guess we see how that’s working.
Republicans will continue to blame Obama and elect the very worst.
This is not an example of incompetence. It is the Republican strategy. Across the nation, their plan is tax cuts, which leads to revenue shortfalls, which then allow them to claim the need for budget cuts. Of course, the budget cuts are always welfare and education. An uneducated populace is prey to Republicans’ scapegoating tactics. The uneducated continuously vote against their own economic self-interest after buying into those scapegoating tactics. You have to hand it to them. Republicans are good at politics.
Also from the BEA: Blog: “By contrast, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting decreased 10.6 percent and subtracted from growth in 25 states, including every state in the Plains region, WHICH EXPERIENCED HIGH LEVELS OF CROP PRODUCTION IN 2016.. This industry was the leading contributor to the decreases in real GDP in Iowa and South Dakota— the only two states to decrease in the second quarter”.
https://blog.bea.gov/2017/11/21/gross-domestic-product-gdp-by-state-second-quarter-2017/
Ridin’ On The Iowa Pain Train (haiku) “Republican game – plan puts Iowa dead last – in GDP growth”
You cite the BEA for your statistics. So what does the BEA actually say about the issue?
In 2017, Iowa current-dollar GDP was $190.2 billion and ranked 29th in the United States. In 2007, Iowa GDP was $137.6
billion and ranked 30th in the United States.
In 2017, Iowa real GDP grew 0.5 percent; the 2016-2017 national change was 2.1 percent. The 2007-2017 compound annual
growth rate for Iowa real GDP was 1.4 percent; the compound annual growth rate for the nation was 1.2 percent.
See here for more:
https://www.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/pdf.cfm?fips=19000&areatype=STATE&geotype=3
But we have less corporate income tax thanks to Reynolds, for all the good that did
From 2017?
So where does Iowa rank now? Can’t get any worse.