BRANSTAD’S REORGANIZATION PLAN: CUT AND RUN
Terry Branstad moved to restructure Iowa's state government, but the savings that reorganization created were short lived when he undercut himself by dramatically increasing spending and expanding the size of state government.“Let me tell you something: Terry Branstad kept two sets of books to hide a massive budget deficit from Iowans. I wouldn’t trust him with my wallet, let alone the State of Iowa again. We saw how that went,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan.
In 1986, Terry Branstad worked with the legislature to reorganize state government to create savings during the farm crisis. Branstad consolidated 68 state agencies into 24 and 1,100 Iowans lost their jobs for an estimated savings of $40 million.1
His $40 million in savings were short-lived, however, when he abandoned all sense of fiscal restraint, and allowed his budget to balloon 111% from $2.13 billion in 1986 to $4.5 billion in his last year in office.2 That’s not just because of inflation, either. After adjusting for inflation, Branstad still allowed his budget to balloon over $1.26 billion between 1986 and 1999.3
Contrast Branstad’s reorganization plan with Governor Culver’s, which saved more than $250 million. Culver’s budget is also smaller than when he took office.
“Governor Culver has a made a sincere commitment to create savings for the people of Iowa. That’s evident in the upwards of $250 million in savings from reorganization and simply, the size of his budget.”
“Reorganizing state government is about finding ways to be efficient, in part, to create savings, but if you’re going to just cut and run to double the size of state government like Branstad did, why bother in the first place?” asked Kiernan.
Sources:
- Newsday, November 24, 1992.
- Associated Press, 1/15/1986; Des Moines Register 10/6/09
- Inflation Calculator, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed March 10, 2010: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl