Iowa Feels the Branstad Effect

by Paul Deaton

Before we realized it, the Branstad administration is leaving a mark on the state. The impression is not good. Focus has been on budget cuts during a time when the state revenues are adequate, and tax breaks for large corporations when Iowa has already has low corporate taxes. The Republicans had a plan for Iowa’s future and are working the plan. The Branstad effect is trickling down.

From someone in the labor movement, “…the construction contractor at the new John and Mary Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Center (Newton Road, across from Westlawn) broke their contract with the carpenters under pressure from Gov. Branstad and the Board of Regents. They are replacing these folks with out-of-state workers.”

Senator Shawn Hamerlinck (R-42) told a group of students at the capitol, “You just put forth the effort to be part of political propaganda in a political circus,” he said. “I do not like it when students actually come here and lobby for funds; that’s just my opinion. I wish you guys the best … but this political theater — leave the circus to us.”

Representative Jeff Kaufmann (R-79) described House Study Bill 219, “The crazy, give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic bill.”

Then there are my favorites, these photos from yesterday of a state park picnic shelter and its barbecue grill surrounded by two feet of overgrown grass.
 
These vignettes don’t require elaboration. The simple truth is that Iowa is changing in tangible ways and if you aren’t aware of the coarsening of life in Iowa, you will be.

There is only one thing to say about the Branstad effect, “Is this the Iowa you hoped for?” Many of us feel Iowa can do better.

~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton