Jobless offices won’t reopen, but funding question remains

DES MOINES - Sen. Bill Dotzler's not happy.

The Waterloo Democrat is on the hunt for the $6.5 million Republican Gov. Terry Branstad claimed to save by closing 36 Iowa Workforce Development offices. He's not getting the answers he's looking for.

“In 16 years down here I've never had this kind of trouble getting numbers from a department,” Dotzler said during an interview in the Senate lounge. “We've been asking, but we're not getting full disclosure.”

Dotzler made his complaint Tuesday as a House Appropriations subcommittee began work on a bill to restore funding for Iowa Workforce Development offices.

Legislative action is necessary in light of a unanimous Iowa Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that Branstad illegally shut the 36 job centers last year. After the 2011 session, Branstad vetoed funding for the centers and the Legislature's requirements that they remain open.

The bill in the subcommittee would maintain the $8.67 million approved by the Legislature last year, but not reopen any of the offices Branstad closed.

As part of the legislative effort, Dotzler said, lawmakers will insist the Branstad administration make a “full accounting” for the $6.5 million in savings.

That's easy, said Workforce Development Communications Director Kerry Koonce: “It was never there in the first place.”

Workforce Development, which is 80 percent funded with federal dollars, “was $6.5 million short” in state and federal funds, she said. That was the amount needed to operate the 36 offices.

That data, she added, is available to Dotzler and his colleagues in various ways including on the state information data system where they can see it for themselves.

“We've provided so much data and packaged it in so many different ways,” Koonce said.

Dotzler suspects the savings were spent on closing the 36 offices and paying unemployment insurance for employees who were laid off.

Koonce said $6,000 was spent on closing the offices, mostly to transfer materials to other offices. Another $8,000 was spent on new technology - the computer kiosks in public libraries and other public buildings where job seekers can look for openings.

Workforce Development does not operate on a pay-as-you-go basis for unemployment insurance. Rather, like many agencies and businesses, it makes quarterly contributions.

Lawmakers plan to move the bill on the jobless agency funding out of committees before the end of the week.

“The agreement reached will make sure businesses can find skilled workers and Iowans can get the skills they need to land a high quality job,” said Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City, also a member of the subcommittee.

Branstad warned the agreement does not address the 2013 budget. In an interview, Branstad pointed out federal funds have been cut and interest on the unemployment trust fund is “down considerably so there is less money available.”

He hopes the Legislature can avoid a situation similar to last year when it mandated the number of offices Iowa Workforce Development was to maintain, but didn't provide adequate funding.

“I think there is an understanding that doesn't make sense,” he said.

Rod Boshart of the Des Moines bureau contributed to this story