Partisan sparks fly at Senate hearing for Dept. of Administrative Services

DES MOINES - A partisan dust-up erupted Tuesday over a legislative report focusing on the size of state government and spending by a state agency.

At issue was an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency of the state Department of Administrative Services, which indicated that statewide expenditures and employee numbers have been growing during a period when Gov. Terry Branstad pledged to contain government growth.

The legislative report that was issued last July noted that spending by state agencies grew by 7.2 percent from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2013. DAS spending in particular was up 17.6 percent for the last two years of that period. The report also indicated state employment grew by 2.1 percent, or 1,119 full-time positions, from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2013.

LSA spokeswoman Holly Lyons told members of the Senate Government Oversight Committee the report was a broad overview and required more detailed analysis to derive solid conclusions, noting it 'raises more questions than it answers.”

However, committee member Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, said there was enough data to conclude DAS officials had 'mischaracterized” savings the agency had achieved by switching state construction oversight to private contract managers, which should be a 'wake-up call” to the committee and portend a look next session at restructuring DAS operations.

Committee member Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, challenged the numbers as incomplete, inaccurate and said a change in the way that DAS construction costs are reported created 'misleading” numbers. He called the result 'disturbing” and asked the committee to allow DAS to respond to the report.

Garrett and McCoy sparred over the report, with McCoy telling Garrett 'I know you don't like the news you're getting today” and advising him that 'sometimes you have to swallow hard and move on.”

But DAS spokesman Lon Anderson said the LSA comparisons were skewed because they reflected $9 million in increased deposits in the state motor pool revolving funds, which DAS oversees, that were paid by other state departments to replace their vehicle fleets. He also noted a separate $8 million expenditure reflected a legislatively mandated consolidation of state information technology services that was included under the DAS fiscal umbrella.

'We're doing more with less,” said Anderson, who provided a breakdown of state government employment indicating executive-branch full-time positions were down 2,545 since fiscal 2009 when the 3,838 increased hires at the Board of Regent institutions were removed. The report showed an overall 2.14 percent increase in state government employment - from 52,285 employees in fiscal 2009 to $53,405 in fiscal 2013.