Iowa’s Republican trifecta ― one-party control of the governor’s office, the state Senate and the state House ― just wrapped its 10th legislative session. It’s the longest such stretch for either party in Iowa since Republicans ran the show from 1939 to 1957, when Democratic Gov. Herschel Loveless took office.
The state has not prospered under the trifecta. That doesn’t mean that changing parties at Terrace Hill or the Capitol would surely deliver better results. It just means that, however Iowans approach their votes for state offices in June and November, they should remember that the status quo isn’t delivering.
Republicans have scored policy triumphs aplenty since Iowans handed them control in the 2016 election. It’s been a decade of tax cuts, deregulation, limitations on safety-net programs, rejection of LGBTQ+ inclusion and affirmative action, and special regard for gun rights.
Republican elected officials argue that being a leader in tax cuts and “school choice” equal success for the state. Other metrics tell a more concerning story. Iowa has tepid population growth overall, with ongoing decline in rural areas. Medical care is difficult to find outside the state’s largest cities. Economic growth is similarly lukewarm, with Democrats repeatedly touting an analyst’s ranking of Iowa as in 50th place nationally. The state is using over $1 billion from reserve funds to balance the budget for the second straight year, as reduced tax revenue collides with expanded spending on private school tuition and Medicaid.
Farmers in particular face numerous challenges, as Donnelle Eller reports. Commodity prices are low, with many unanswered questions about whether demand for Iowa corn and soybeans will ever rebound. Input prices are high. The communities that used to bind farm families are hollowing out. State-level Republicans have been often unwilling and always unable to persuade President Donald Trump to abandon two policies that have hammered the agriculture sector: stiff tariff policies and the war in Iran.
Republicans have had 10 years to set up the state however they saw fit for future success. They’ve fallen short of the mark.
Kim Reynolds touted water quality work early and late, to little effect
Iowa’s approach to water quality illustrates neatly the gulf between what state leaders have professed and what they’ve actually achieved. Gov. Kim Reynolds celebrated in early 2018 that the first bill she was signing into law after replacing Gov. Terry Branstad was a multimillion-dollar investment in water quality. Eight years and change later, Reynolds held a news conference on the third-to-last day of the legislative session to announce a similar multimillion-dollar investment.
In between those bookends, many Iowa farms adopted conservation practices, but pollution from farm chemicals and other sources remained overwhelming. Lawmakers showed no interest this year in finding a few hundred thousand dollars to keep a well-regarded system of water quality sensors operational. Reynolds and her party put a lot of money and a lot of words behind their supposed commitment to water quality. But they relied on voluntary actions and, in the end, haven’t made much of a difference.
Tax rates are lower in Iowa, but at what cost?
Iowa Republicans have been relentless about trimming spending, ostensibly to enable tax reductions and reduce waste. After they ousted six incumbent Democratic state senators in the 2016 election, they immediately flexed in 2017 by legislating away most of public unions’ negotiating rights. Add to that meager funding increases for public schools and universities, even while inflation was exploding, and work requirements for some Medicaid recipients.
The austerity had one major exception. Reynolds answered one of her few setbacks, when Republican lawmakers wouldn’t pass legislation to let private school students use state money for their expenses, by campaigning against holdouts in primaries and then launching the Education Savings Account program with a new Legislature in 2023. It costs the state over $300 million a year.
The result of all this is a state with a perennial budget deficit and limited resources to invest in filling in the state’s health care deserts or revitalizing rural Iowa.
Iowa’s focus should be on welcoming others
A segment of every legislative session under the trifecta has been devoted to exclusionary laws regarding social issues. This year, it was banning local civil rights rules and telemedicine abortions. Over the years, Republicans enacted laws that:
Iowa need not continue on this stagnant path indefinitely. Iowans could try for leadership that emphasizes a spirit of welcoming. Leadership that acts on opportunities for government to invest in services that it is best situated to provide. Leadership that respects local control whenever possible.
Iowa needs a new direction.
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa hasn’t gotten better under a decade of Republican rule | Opinion
Reporting by The Register’s editorial, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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