Grassroots, labor groups push Iowa lawmakers to veto governor’s budget

Third party grassroots groups are pushing lawmakers to hold a special session to override a line-item veto issued by Gov. Terry Branstad, which has caused frustration and contention within both parties.

The veto overturned protection to 36 Iowa Workforce Development field offices, allowing state government to shut them down. The offices serve to help the unemployed find jobs, apply for work and to be a resource to sharpening job skills and resume-writing.

Several lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, interviewed by the Iowa Independent expressed frustration and disappointment over the veto: Democrats said Branstad had no right to overturn the bipartisan funding, $3.5 million, to keep the offices open for one more year; Republicans said while they were not against streamlining economic development, they had wanted time to explore all the options to save money before shutting the field offices down.

Most, if not all, of the offices slated for closure are in rural districts, some of which see moderate to high unemployment and are significant distances from more urbanized areas of Iowa.

One Republican, Rep. Brian Moore, of Zwingle, wrote Branstad a letter early in the week, requesting he spare the field office in Makoqueta. Friday, Moore said he had yet to hear from back from Branstad.

However, many legislators are reluctant to gather under the golden dome again before the official session start in January. Republicans have said other issues, specifically commercial and industrial property tax reform, would have to be taken up and special sessions mean spending extra money.

Now, grassroots groups and labor union coalitions are saying a failure to act on a special session is failure to act for constituents.

“A special session would be very appropriate,” Ken Sagar, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, said. “We need to get people back to work.”

Sagar also sits on the Iowa Workforce Development Board. The board received word of closures “several hours after it was presented to the (Iowa) Senate. It was very frustrating.”

“Yeah, I have a pretty good view of what the bottom of the bus looks like,” he added, making reference to the expression “thrown under the bus.”

The solution the Branstad administration has offered are hundreds of “virtual points of access” — computers in public locations, including municipal libraries, armories and Veterans’ Affairs buildings. In addition, there will be 16 regional integrated one-stop shops. The computers offer more extended services and hours because the field offices often offered part-time hours or were open only a few days a week, both Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds have said.

The Governor has also said in the coming months, officials will make sure the computers are sufficiently and adequately serving their function.

Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht has said the savings are calculated to $7 million in the first fiscal year following the shut-downs. Currently, there are 100,900 unemployed people in Iowa, roughly six percent, according to Iowa Workforce Development statistics.

Sagar scoffed while talking about the new access points and said though one may be employed, that does not guarantee adequate pay to meet ends, but enough to disqualify the employee from benefits.

“One out of two people are unemployed actually drawing unemployment (aid),” Sagar said. “The numbers are much worse than what’s being reporting.”

“It’s not fair to say anyone is opposed to being up-to-date as possible,” he continued, speaking of technology taking the place of offices. “But for (the Branstad administration) to say, ‘We’re doing something special with these points of access?’ That’s just insane. And correct me if I’m wrong, but our public libraries are funded by their cities, so does this mean our municipalities will be bearing the responsibility for these (computers)?”

Ruth Schultz, a community organizer with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, said the grassroots organization, which is an arm of the National People’s Action group, is also in support of pushing lawmakers to reconvene.

“Obviously, we think the field offices need to stay open,” she said. “It’s in the state’s best interest to have a special session. The Legislature appropriated the money because they were responding to their communities in the first place, and Branstad didn’t listen to them.”

And over at AFSCME Council 61, president Danny Homan said his organization is all but resting on its laurels, calling the field office closures “a travesty and just a huge mistake.”

“We have about 4,000 signatures to keep the field offices open that we plan to give to the Governor,” he said. “We’ll be taking this issue to our members.”

Homan said Friday he has not tried to contact Branstad or his administration.

“I imagine if I did send a message to him, there’d be no response,” Homan said. “All that man wants to do is sit down and talk to us about opening our collective bargaining, and that, of course, is not open for discussion.”

Sagar and Homan were cynical on public-driven action if the Legislature doesn’t act first.

“I’d like the public to take action, yes, but they won’t. Unless it’s workers who have lost their jobs, I worry there’d be no real impact,” he said.

Sagar is also worried the issue will go unnoticed until it’s too late.

“A job at McDonald’s is great for a high school kid, but I don’t know how you would raise a family doing that,” he said. “If McDonald’s and jobs like it are part of the 200,000 (job creation) plan Branstad’s talking about, then we won’t be raising anyone’s wages soon.”

Schultz said there may be no choice to take the fight to the people. Iowa CCI said they made attempts to contact Branstad, which went unheard.

The Governor’s Office is unaware of any contact made by Iowa CCI, press official Jimmy Centers, said.

“Sometimes, we cannot rely on politicians,” Schultz said. “But just because there’s no movement right now on a special session, doesn’t mean we’re not angry and it doesn’t mean we’re not going to forget this.”