New marketing program will draw businesses, residents to Iowa, Gov. Reynolds says

DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled a new logo and marketing plan Tuesday as part of an attempt to draw people to live in Iowa.

The governor also said the executive branch of state government is now operating under its newly restructured and streamlined form, which she signed into law in April.

Reynolds offered the updates during a news conference Tuesday at the Iowa Capitol.

“Alignment is an incredible opportunity to change how we serve Iowans for the better, but it’s also so much more than that. I’m equally excited about the ways that it will change how state government works together by encouraging greater collaboration, inspiring innovation and building really a culture that unites us as one team,” she said.

“Creating that type of unity not only for state employees but for Iowans has been something I’ve aspired to since taking office. And alignment is also the perfect opportunity has been the perfect opportunity to bring it all together.”

The marketing plan includes a new state logo, which Reynolds said will be used to market Iowa to attract new businesses and residents, will be used by state agencies and will be displayed on welcome signs across Iowa on the two interstates that run through the state and on other roadways. The logo features a landscape scene and the tagline, “Freedom to flourish.”

The new slogan will replace “Fields of opportunities.”

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The new logo was designed by a state employee, Reynolds said, and the state worked on the marketing plan with the consulting firm FleishmanHillard, which has worked in the past with the state’s economic development agency.

The state spent $305,000 in federal pandemic relief funding on the marketing plan, the governor’s office said. Implementation of the new state logo will be phased in so current signage can be replaced using existing state agency budgets “to the extent possible,” the governor’s office said.

“Iowa’s national profile is on the rise, our reputation is strong, and Americans have taken notice,” Reynolds said, while saying that Iowa’s net migration recently increased for the first time in “a generation.”

“So we’re heading in the right direction, and we are perfectly positioned to capitalize on this point in time by building Iowa’s brand and putting it front and center,” she said.

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Statehouse Democrats largely opposed the proposal to reorganize and streamline the state executive branch, alleging the changes will give too much power to the governor.

Iowa Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights and leader of the minority-party Democrats in the Iowa House, in a statement issued Tuesday criticized Reynolds’ plans and some policies passed in recent years by statehouse Republicans.

“If the governor truly wanted to give Iowans the ‘freedom to flourish,’ she would not be banning health care decisions for women, banning books, or banning curriculum,” Konfrst said, referring to Republican-supported laws that seek to restrict abortions, and remove school books and curriculum that contain sexual acts.

State agencies across the executive branch have spent the past few months shifting and merging as part of a reorganization plan that was developed by a consulting firm and passed into law this year by statehouse Republicans.

Under the reorganization, the executive branch streamlined from 37 cabinet-level agencies to 16, and eliminated more than 500 unfilled state positions. The governor’s office has said that no state employees will lose a job because of the transition. Over 2,600 state employees transferred to a different department, Reynolds said Tuesday.

The consulting firm Guidehouse, which was paid nearly $1 million to develop the reorganization plan, projected the state will save $215 million over four years. The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Service Agency came up with a much smaller projected savings: $12.6 million annually, totaling just more than $50 million over four years.

Reynolds and her office have stood by their projections, with Reynolds having said — including again on Tuesday — that the savings could be even greater.

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