On a collision course

Republicans are taking big risks with Iowa's future.

Photo by Austin Goode on Unsplash

Say what you want about Kim Reynolds, but she knows how to break the furniture.

Over the past two years, Iowa’s governor has convinced Republican legislators to pass two radical new bills – a big tax cut to carve about 20% out of the state’s $8 billion annual budget and a private school funding plan that will cost taxpayers about $900 million over the next four years and $345 million a year thereafter.

Reynolds signed the private school bill Tuesday.

No doubt, this is a big win for Iowa’s governor.

Republican donors and activists around the country will love her for it. And the conservative media will call her a rising star.

Today’s Republicans adore politicians when their leaders shatter the status quo — or break the furniture, as I call it. That’s especially true if what gets damaged in the process are their political enemies — in this case, the teachers union and, with the flat tax, the idea that the wealthier among us should pay higher tax rates.

Both have been anathema to the right-wing for decades.

But to what end is all this destruction? Other than politics.

The vast majority of money in the private school plan is going to people who already are sending their children there so this is simply reimbursing them for their expenses.

As for the tax cut, the bulk of this money is being transferred to the wealthy. (The average millionaire will get a $67,000 tax cut under the Reynolds plan, while the typical Iowa family gets just $600.)

In other words, most Iowans aren’t profiting from this Republican largesse.

The remarkable thing, though, is that these so-called conservatives are throwing around unprecedented amounts of money with no real idea of the consequences.

What’s more, they don’t seem to care.

The full cost of this private school plan, which still is somewhat speculative, kicks in about the same time the state budget is scheduled to take in 20% less income. Has anybody laid out a plan for how Iowa will deal with the fallout?

True, we have surpluses in the state budget, much of it due to the federal government, but they can’t hold out forever. Not to mention, these are one-time funds. Once they’re spent, they’re gone.

This is a far cry from the Iowa conservatism I grew up with. Back in the day, Republicans weren’t so fast to roll the dice on these kinds of risky ventures. They wouldn’t break the furniture if they didn’t know what the house would look like afterward.

Sure, there were a handful of Steve Bannon-types back then; people who didn’t mind breaking things up before they knew where the pieces would land. But they weren’t as prominent. And they weren’t in power in Iowa.

I grew up in Iowa during the 1970s, and I can’t imagine Bob Ray, the former Republican governor, ever taking these risks.

Today’s Republicans revel in throwing the dice.

But what about us regular Iowans who aren’t comfortable with gambling; who don’t like the idea of breaking the furniture, especially when the rest of the house has needs?

I’ve already explained how public schools are underfunded in the first place. The private school bill will add to the damage.

But here are a few other examples of things that need fixing in Iowa:

·       The DNR says 750 of the state’s rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands are impaired. That’s more than half our waterways. It would be nice to clean some of them up.

·      There still are thousands of Iowans, the elderly and disabled, on Medicaid waiting lists hoping for basic health care and daily living assistance. And they’ve been there for years.

·       Iowa’s elderly and disabled also don’t have enough workers to care for them, in large part because of low pay. This problem has lingered for years, too. And the $14 million the Legislature dribbled out to help last year to help is small compared to what’s really needed.

·       Iowa’s had a childcare crisis for years. But what has Kim Reynolds done?  True, she created a task force, but what was actually done?

Here’s the answer: They changed the law so childcare workers could watch more kids and be younger. They let already financially strapped parents on state aid dip into their own pocket to help make up for the state’s low reimbursement rates. Then the Republicans gobbled up some of the money President Biden and congressional Democrats sent them to support the effort. That is, after they criticized Biden for spending the money in the first place.

Has this changed things?

If it had, would the Greater Des Moines Partnership still list childcare among its top 2023 legislative priorities?

·       Then there’s Iowa’s young people, who continue to leave the state. When was the last time anybody at the Capitol talked about creative ways to entice them to stay? I guarantee you they aren’t among the millionaires hanging around to collect the money from Reynolds’ huge tax cut.

·       We still have a workforce crisis, too. Which has persisted for years – under Reynolds’ watch.

·       Meanwhile, college enrollment, while finally improving a bit, has spent years shrinking, while tuition rises. Not exactly a good way to lure young people.

Add to all this the issues that aren’t even on the radar of the Capitol powers that be. I’ll cite just one:

·       A nationwide study published a year ago said that Iowa ranked 4th highest in the nation in kids testing positive for lead poisoning (76% of kids under age 6). Yet, Iowa’s budget to deal with lead, including federal funds, hasn’t gone up in more than 20 years.

These are all problems that could use some of the $345 million a year that will now go to private school expenses. Not to mention the nearly $2 billion in revenues that will be lost to those top-heavy tax cuts.

Yes, Kim Reynolds is breaking the furniture these days. The problem is, she’s leaving behind a house in bad need of repair.

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Laura Belin, Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen, Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias, Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up

Pat Kinney, View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Kyle Munson: Kyle’s Main Street, Iowa

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton, My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices

Cheryl Tevis, Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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