Iowa Gov. Reynolds on county consolidation: ‘We have to take a look at everything’

DES MOINES — Should Iowa have fewer than 99 counties?

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ task force on government efficiency has floated the idea, and Reynolds on Friday did not rule it out.

“I’ve said this 100 times. … We have to take a look at everything,” Reynolds told reporters Friday after a public bill-signing ceremony. “Iowans are going to have to decide if they truly do want their property taxes reduced, then we probably are going to have to think about how we deliver services a little bit differently, a little bit more efficiently.”

Reynolds early this year created a state DOGE Task Force — named similarly to the federal government efficiency agency created by President Donald Trump and formerly headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk before their recent public fallout. Reynolds charged the state task force with researching ways to make government in Iowa operate more efficiently at all levels.

At its second of four scheduled meetings, the task force this week floated as one possible recommendation consolidating some Iowa counties to be more cost-effective in delivering government services.

Iowa has the ninth-most counties among U.S. states, yet Iowa is just 31st in population and 26th in land mass.

Reynolds said the task force and state policymakers must be willing to consider all recommendations to ease Iowans’ property tax burden, a top goal of state lawmakers.

“I’ve come full circle,” Reynolds said when asked about the task force’s possible recommendation. Before becoming governor in 2017, Reynolds had served as lieutenant governor, as a state senator, and as Clarke County treasurer.

“I remember fighting Des Moines way back when, when they talked about regionalization one week after I had just been hired at the county treasurer’s office,” Reynolds said. “I went from thinking I had the greatest job ever to thinking, ‘I’m going to lose it in a week.’

“But I also spent time in local government. I spent time in the (Iowa) Senate. I’ve spent time as lieutenant governor, and now as governor. And I really do have a fairly good understanding of how those all work together, and how there truly is a lot of duplication in the services,” Reynolds said. “And we just can’t have that if we’re going to try to reduce the cost to property owners. And they’re screaming for change, so they’re going to have to be a willing partner in that change.”

The Iowa DOGE Task Force is tentatively scheduled to meet again in August, and will formalize and make its recommendations to the governor and lawmakers this fall.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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