From Surplus To Deficit: Branstad And Reynolds' Sad Legacy

[progressoid]

A mere four years ago, Iowa’s budget sat at a healthy $927 million surplus. Fiscal Year 2013 saw the state in a very strong budgetary position.

Now? Fiscal Year 2017 is estimated to bottom out at a $130 million deficit.

So what happened? Well, it turns out that four years of huge property tax cuts for corporations does a number on how much revenue Iowa can bring in, and they clearly haven’t stimulated Iowa’s economy in the way Terry Branstad and Kim Reynolds promised.

House Democrats this week pointed to that deficit as further proof of the Republican administration’s fiscal mismanagement.

“First, the state budget deficit is largely the result of new corporate tax giveaways that have increased exponentially and now top $500 million annually,” Representative Chris Hall wrote in a memo. “Those giveaways have not produced the economic growth Republicans promised and, instead, have slowed the state’s economy. The Branstad-Reynolds administration has failed in its promise to create 200,000 jobs and raise family incomes by 25 percent.”

...https://iowastartingline.com/2017/03/31/surplus-deficit-branstad-reynolds-sad-legacy/

[dae]

1. Jindal and his sad sack sycophants gave Louisiana away in

his pyric quest for the Presidency.

[rurallib]

2. And the new budget will even make it worse

Looks like that article is a year old and we were just at the beginning of huge cutbacks during the fiscal year.

so instead of shoring up revenues, republicans doubled down with even bigger tax cuts and give aways to corporations.
Hard to believe but they cut revenues back some 15% on revenues that were already 10% short. -15 + -10 does not = 0
As my senator likes to tell me "the growth will make up the difference." Give me some of what he's smoking.

[progressoid]

4. You're right. It's from last year.

Speaking of growth. It's going to be tough when China just decided to not buy our soybeans.


Also from last year:

Iowa Now Dead Last In GDP Growth Under All-Republican Control
November 22, 2017 By rick-smith

Very bad news this week for both Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported the second quarter economic growth by state (GDP). Iowa’s economic growth was a negative .7%, dead last among all 50 states. Of the 50 states, 48 had positive growth in this period. Only Iowa (-.7%) and South Dakota (-.3%) had a negative growth rate.

While one quarter’s performance doesn’t predict future growth, it’s a huge embarrassment for the Iowa Republican Party. The Republican Governor and the GOP control majorities in both branches of the Legislature and have driven Iowa’s economy to last place in the nation. They can’t blame the Democrats for this economic disaster.

This latest economic data simply confirms what most Iowans already know. Republicans’ mismanagement of state government has led Iowa to a budget train wreck. Under their management they have taken a budget surplus of nearly $1 billion in 2013 to a budget deficit this past year. In the Reynolds regime’s struggle to balance the state budget this past year, they slashed spending by $118 million and ended up borrowing another $144 million to end the budget year. One wonders if former Governor Terry Branstad didn’t foresee the budget mess he and Reynolds were creating and decided to abandon ship by taking the China gig.

...https://iowastartingline.com/2017/11/22/iowa-now-dead-last-gdp-growth-republican-control/

[IADEMO2004]

5. Make Iowa Kansas Again

Thelma and Louise Economy

[Cairycat]

3. Whoever our gubernatorial candidate is,

He or she needs to hit on this, hard and repeatedly in the campaign. R's don't pay much attention to facts and graphs like this, but with-it Independents should. Seed