Governor Kim Reynolds said her administration has successfully implemented a state government re-alignment plan, reducing the number of cabinet-level departments from 37 to 16.
Reynolds’ government downsizing plan, Senate File 514, was a defining piece of legislation in a historic session of the Iowa Legislature.
“It was about a year ago that we began a comprehensive assessment of state government to identify ways to operate more efficiently and effectively,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Together with leaders from all state agencies, we identified opportunities to align operations, resources, and services to better meet the needs of Iowans.”
The reorganization effort, which eliminated more than 500 unfilled positions, is expected to save taxpayers $214 million over four years.
Reynolds signed the bill into law in early April. The clock began ticking on implementing the major undertaking.
The governor said more than 100 state employees were directly involved in alignment planning, preparation, and implementation over the last year. Enterprise and department teams had just three months to implement the changes by the July 1 effective date.
“It’s difficult to grasp the size and scope of this undertaking, especially with such an aggressive timeline. Most people would say it couldn’t be done,” Reynolds said. “But our team was fully committed, and I am deeply grateful for their exceptional work that made it possible.”
At a recent press conference, the governor said some details still need to be worked out.
“We’re working on space and some of those things because we want the team together. It’s really important that we develop that culture of collaboration, and you need the team together if you’re going to create that kind of culture,” Reynolds said.
Legislative Democrats, an ever-shrinking minority in Iowa political power, protested the cuts as a power grab by a popular Republican governor in a deep red state.
“House and Senate Republicans refused to fully vet this bill or exercise any oversight on the governor’s office,” Senator Zach Wahls (D-Coralville), said in a statement following the bill’s signing. Wahls was Senate Minority Leader at the time. “Now it’s law, and Iowans will be living with the consequences for decades to come.”
The “consequences” are yet to be seen, but there’s no doubt Iowa state government had grown dramatically over the past several decades. The nearly 1,600-page bill aimed to trim a bevvy of boards, commissions and agencies that often duplicated services or proved burdensome for the Iowans using them.
“Builders now must work across four separate agencies to get the licenses and inspections required of them, and that truly slows down the process, but that’s not going to be the case anymore,” Reynolds said at the bill signing.
The government downsizing effort was among several key conservative victories in a legislative session dominated by Republicans. Reynolds also signed into law landmark legislation creating one of the more ambitious school choice programs in the country, property tax relief, and measures taking on liberal indoctrination in Iowa’s schools and prohibiting gender-altering procedures to minors.
“Iowa’s national profile is rising, and Americans are taking notice as states around the country are looking to Iowa as a beacon for freedom and opportunity,” Reynolds said as the session ended in May.
– – –
M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Kim Reynolds” by Kim Reynolds.
I wish the governor success. It is not only Iowa, every state is greatly over staffed in departmental bureaucracy. Department heads, and this I know personally from senior management in California, is drawn to create their own fiefdom is expanding their own department, their own agency. They promulgate rules that in many instances have no more a purpose than serving to sustain the agency. Administrations change with elections and term limits, the department continues on and grows even larger. None of these department heads are elected by the people yet they wield much power and frankly, could not care less about the people. The governor is absolutely right in pushing to reduce bureaucrats, other states need to do the same..