The word of the day: Manufacturing

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett didn't have to work too hard to manufacture a greeting for President Obama Wednesday.

“When I said ‘welcome to Cedar Rapids' I told him that it's the largest manufacturing city in Iowa, with over 20,000 manufacturing jobs,” Corbett said, standing on the shop floor at Conveyor Engineering and Manufacturing, where Obama spoke and workers manufacture large auger conveyors. "And obviously we're thrilled to have him at a local company like this.”

So what did the president say? “He scolded me for not wearing an overcoat," Corbett said.

Manufacturing, as you might have guessed, was the word of the day, although the president's message encouraging it was actually recycled from Tuesday's night's State of the Union address. It was not breaking news that Obama wants to cut taxes for cutting-edge manufacturers that create jobs here and provide resources to community colleges to retrain workers. 

But it may be news to some Iowans why Iowa is the perfect place for a manufacturing message.

“The average Iowan doesn't know that much about the magnitude and distribution of Iowa's manufacturing,” said Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson. “It's a big deal here.”

Swenson co-authored an article last year pointing out that about one in every three dollars earned in this state is linked in some way to manufacturing. Iowa has 3,800 manufacturers that account for 11 percent of Iowa's total jobs, more than any other industrial category, and 17 percent of wages. A remarkable number of firms turn out high-value durable goods. And most of them are small businesses that employ fewer than 50. Conveyor started very small, in a garage, and grew.

“What (Obama's) talking about is manufacturing of the future, and that seems to fit very well with what Iowa's economic development strategies are,” Swenson said. “I think if we get policies to back it up, it would be nothing but good for Iowa.”

It also seems to fit with Gov. Terry Branstad's push to encourage manufacturing supply chain firms to cluster here. Branstad, during his last stretch as governor, also spearheaded the effort to exempt industrial machinery and equipment from property taxes.

Obama invited the Republican governor to attend his speech. He came, and listened, but wasn't impressed.

“I just think you have to go about it, not in nit-picky ways, a little thing here and a little thing there, trying to put a Band Aid on something,” Branstad said, insisting Obama is too timid. “Let's reduce the overall tax and regulatory burden to make Iowa and America more attractive across the board.”

Of course, both parties are furiously firing off job creation ideas, with very little hard proof they'll work as grandly or miraculously as advertised. Still, Lisa Tuetken of Monticello, a Conveyor employee and mother of two engineers, one mechanical, one civil, is glad Obama is trying.

“It would be nice to see if we can keep it here in the United States as much as we can. You've got hard workers, good workers. They want it to work right, put it together right,” she said.

Working right, putting things together? Congress, take notes.