Branstad says government is smaller, more efficient

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad insisted Tuesday his administration is meeting a goal to cut the size of state government by 15 percent in the face of a legislative report that indicated otherwise.

The governor told reporters his administration has reduced the number of state employees by more than 1,000 since January 2011 and headed off another 500 new government hires that were in the pipeline. He said his state agencies have made government more efficient and his policies have shifted state program burdens off property taxes.

However, an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency of the state Department of Administrative Services indicated that statewide expenditures are growing and DAS spending in particular is up 17.6 percent for the last two years.

'It does not appear the costs for state government are being reduced per the goal in the DAS strategic plan,” according to the LSA review of the agency's expenditures from fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2013.

'The growth in the DAS outside services and the growth in personal services costs in the last two years brings into question the efficiency of the DAS outsourcing,” the LSA report concluded. 'It also appears that the DAS workforce is shrinking while the overall state workforce is growing” because the agency 'is keeping or hiring higher-paid employees and reducing the number of lower-paid positions.”

DAS spokesman Caleb Hunter said the LSA document had 'incomplete” information, noting that increased deposits in the state motor pool revolving funds that DAS oversees reflected money paid by other state departments to replace their vehicle fleets. Also, a key driver of DAS expenditures, Hunter added, is information technology services they provide that typically have been offset by savings and/or cost-avoidance in other executive-branch agencies.

Branstad said tracking by the state Department of Management indicates his administration is maintaining its goal of reducing the size and scope of state government by 15 percent. He said that is different from the state budget, which is growing due to commitments to supplant property tax dollars with state appropriations to revamp/reform education and provide commercial property tax relief.

LSA documents indicate net state appropriations grew from $6.413 billion in fiscal 2013 to an estimated $6.479 billion in the just-completed fiscal year, while state spending for the current fiscal year that started July 1 is projected to grow to $6.974 billion in part to cover the tax relief and education reform commitments.

Also, according to the LSA report, the number of state employees decreased between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2011, but then rebounded to grow by 3 percent in fiscal 2012 and 3.4 percent in fiscal 2013, ending the five-year period with a total 2.1 percent increase in the number of full-time positions.

Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said the LSA numbers reflect employment in all three branches of state government, including the Legislature and regent universities, while the governor was talking only about the executive branch which had 19,398 employees when Branstad took office and now stands at 17,948.

Centers noted that Branstad 'inherited a financial mess and a structural deficit” in January 2011. He said the state was on a 'disastrous budget path” whereby spending would have grown expeditiously had they not been brought into check.

'Instead,” he said, 'Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds instilled honest, conservative budgeting to protect Iowa taxpayers from the reckless across-the-board budget cuts of the past and tax increases.”

The change in fiscal policies have resulted in a 11.9 percent savings this fiscal year compared to 'business as usual under the previous administration,” Centers said, 'and will save 15.1 percent compared to business as usual in our five-year projection.”

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