Branstad plan to kill state agency may adversely impact flood recovery

MARION –Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad was focused on business and job creation Tuesday when he announced his plans to eliminate the Iowa Department of Economic Development in favor of a public-private partnership, but it remains unclear how such a change would impact Linn County flood victims still plodding through a lengthy federal property buyout process.

Terry Branstad (photo by Dave Davidson, www.TEApublican.com)

Of the roughly 1,200 Cedar Rapids properties decimated by 2008 flooding that were identified by the city as being likely candidates for buyouts, only 37 had gone through closings as of Aug. 6. An additional 110 property owners have chosen not to participate in the buyout program. The vast majority of the buyouts — nearly 1,000 — are somewhere in the middle of the process and likely in the hands of the IDED employees that have been charged with completing necessary paperwork and processing the applications against federal duplication-of-benefits rules.

Most of those participating in the buyout program have waited months on official offers and buyout payments — and many have done so after their home was declared an imminent threat by the city and subsequently demolished.

Branstad told supporters gathered in Marion Tuesday that the state needs to “scrap the current dysfunctional and scandal-ridden IDED and replace it with a public-private entity” led by a yet unnamed chief executive officer and governed by a board that will be chaired by Kim Reynolds, Branstad’s running mate. The new entity, which would be named the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress, is being touted by the campaign as a step toward its goal of creating 200,000 jobs.

When asked at the briefing if “scrapping” the department included the elimination of all 115 current departmental employees, Branstad said it was “too early to know.” Likewise, Branstad brushed off a question relating to the possibility of any eliminated state workers being allowed to reapply for positions within the new agency.

The Branstad briefing and additional program white paper were heavily focused on business enticement and retention. The existing IDED, however, fulfills a wide variety of services that are sometimes only peripherally related to that core mission. The Generation Iowa Commission and a state commission on volunteer service, for instance, also fall under the umbrella of the existing department. There is also, of course, the temporary task of integrating the rules and policies of three separate federal agencies in order to process the property buyouts.

When The Iowa Independent specifically asked in an e-mail message to the Branstad campaign how and if the change would impact ongoing property buyouts, spokesman Tim Albrecht parried to a discussion of Gov. Chet Culver’s I-JOBS bonding program.

In a second e-mail, The Iowa Independent clarified that any checks ultimately issued to property owners participating in the buyout program are reimbursed at the federal level through monies already awarded and obligated through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and are not a part of I-JOBS funding. The campaign did not respond to the second request for information.

According to a white paper distributed by the campaign during the new program announcement , the public-private entity developed by Branstad would “benefit from a significant amount of increased flexibility and would allow our state-driven economic development efforts to benefit from the synergy of public-private cooperation.”

Branstad envisions the agency as predominantly taxpayer funded, but with significant stakeholders from the business community that can lead discussions and suggest which programs are working for businesses and which aren’t.

“Our economic development professionals must think and act like customer service representatives,” Branstad said, noting that he views this as only one piece of a complete “reworking of the bureaucratic structure of state government” that will “eliminate redundancies and road blocks in our regulatory and economic development efforts.”

Every economic development program and incentive currently a part of the state’s “tool box” must be re-examined, he said. Those determined to be inefficient will be tossed aside in favor of programs that work better for existing and future business interests in the state.

The current system, according to Branstad, is too complex, too slow and confuses existing and prospective businesses. He wants an approach similar to what has been adopted in other states such as Indiana that could be more easily translated to web and other online technologies.