Spokesman justifies Branstad’s double-dip with discredited figure

Under pressure from some Iowans to explain why Gov. Terry Branstad is accepting both his state salary and drawing from his state pension — a practice known as double-dipping — Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht utilized some questionable statistics about the state’s public-sector workers to justify the situation.

Branstad, Albrecht said, made personal sacrifice to both pursue his re-election bid and by accepting the job as governor.

“Governor Branstad took a pay cut of more than 50 percent to leave the private sector at a time when state employees make 47 percent more than their private-sector counterparts,” Albrecht told reporter William Petroski of The Des Moines Register.

While there is no denying that Branstad had a much more lucrative career when he served as president of Des Moines University from 2003 to 2009, the truth is that his pay cut resulting from a switch from the private to the public sector is typical, according to research by Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson.

Upon comparing salaries paid in the private sector to those paid in the public sector, Swenson found that Iowans who hold college degrees earn substantially more money if they work for private business. In addition, annual salaries for Iowans without college degrees are only marginally better in the public sector ($33,617 for state government employees, and $31,790 for employees of private businesses).

The figures quoted by Albrecht appear to have originated from Leon Shearer, a management consultant to the Branstad campaign on labor issues, who relied on November 2009 research by the Mount Pleasant-based Public Interest Institute. That research, according to Swenson, distorted the true picture of private versus public sector salaries because it did not have controls or allow for education level or employment status (full- or part-time).

“We stand by the Public Interest Institute’s report and suggest that you contact them directly for their methodology,” said Albrecht when asked by The Iowa Independent why questionable data had been used.

Albrecht is simply wrong, Swenson said, and questioned if the simple division of two numbers could be termed a methodology.

“I’ve done two studies and nobody can argue with a straight face that on an education and full-time job basis that the average public worker is overpaid,” Swenson said. “The private sector out-pays college degrees and out-pays advanced degrees compared to the public sector.”

At issue, according to Andrew Cannon, research associate for The Iowa Policy Project, is providing equitable comparisons.

“The way to go about doing this is by comparing workers in both sectors that are in comparable employment situations,” Cannon said. “If you just grab the private sector and put it in one column and the public sector and place it in another, you wind up comparing teens working in fast food establishments with attorneys in the Attorney General’s Office. So, what you have to do is look at groups that share specific characteristics that determine pay rates, such as level of education.

“Doing this in any other way just muddies the waters and doesn’t provide an accurate picture.”

A report using such precise methodology to contrast and compare public and private sector salaries is expected to be released by The Iowa Policy Project next week. Cannon, a researcher for that project, remained close-lipped as to the organization’s key findings.

In 2008, Branstad is believed to have earned $357,000 annually as the university’s president. Currently, Branstad is annually earning both his $130,000 state salary and roughly $52,000 in state pension benefits from his previous tenure as governor, lieutenant governor and state legislator. During the gubernatorial primary, when Branstad opened his tax records to select reporters, Jeff Boeyink, former campaign manager and current chief of staff, indicated that Branstad would forego the pension payments if elected to serve another term as governor.