Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
During a stop in Ottumwa Tuesday, GOP lieutenant governor candidate Kim Reynolds appeared to offer a different economic vision than the man at the top of the Republican ticket, Terry Branstad. However, Branstad’s campaign said the ideas shared by the two running mates are not mutually exclusive.
Last week, Branstad told a crowd in Marshalltown that if elected governor again, he would look at moving some of the services that have been pushed onto the local governments back to the state level, specifically mental health and school funding. As the liberal blog Bleeding Heartland points out, the idea was originally pushed by Branstad’s rival for the gubernatorial nomination, Bob Vander Plaats. By having the state assume some of the responsibilities and costs, local government can lower its expenses and provide property tax relief, Branstad contends.
Tuesday in Ottumwa, Reynolds said in order to meet the campaign’s goal of shrinking state government by 15 percent over five years, a Branstad administration would shift some state services to local governments. She pointed to allowing county treasurers’ offices to issue state driver’s licenses in the majority of Iowa counties as an example.
It’s not something that can be done lightly, Reynolds warned, but with proper coordination she believes there are significant savings to be gained.
Such savings, Reynolds said, play into Branstad’s stated goal of finding ways to reduce the size of government by 15 percent. One of the campaign’s basic talking points is that big government costs big money, so reducing the burden of state government can pass savings to Iowa residents.
While the two positions could appear to be contradictory, Branstad Spokesman Tim Albrecht said they are not.
“At every campaign stop, Sen. Reynolds has said that savings can be found at both the local and state levels,” Albrecht said in a statement to The Iowa Independent. “Sometimes, this means pushing services up from the local to state level, and other times, as they have both noted, this means pushing services down to the local level. This was the case when, as governor, Terry Branstad worked with Clarke County Treasurer Kim Reynolds to allow county treasurers’ offices to issue state driver’s licenses. This has been enormously beneficial and popular at the local level.”
Albrecht said Reynolds can act as a “liaison to local governments” in order to find “cost-saving efficiencies at both the state and local levels.”
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