HELENA —The U.S. Senate is kicking the can down the road, for at least a year.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday, senators approved several amendments to a U.S. Postal Service reform bill that will make rural locations difficult — if not impossible — to close as the struggling agency seeks to end years of multi-billion dollar funding shortages.

DES MOINES — National reports released Monday by two conservative, Republican-leaning groups gave conflicting views of Iowa’s economic picture and business climate.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Enterprising States” report ranked Iowa No. 8 in the nation and listed Iowa among the nation’s “top overall growth performers.”

“A solid performer across most of our metrics,” the report said of Iowa. “Iowa’s strength is perhaps in its stability. The state’s largest cluster — agribusiness, food processing and technology — grew at a 1 percent rate since 2002, significantly better performing than the same group of industries nationally.”

But the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit conservative corporate advocacy group pushing for limited government, free markets and federalism, ranked Iowa as middle-of-the-road in its economic competitiveness. The “Rich States, Poor States” report released Monday ranked Iowa 28th in economic performance and 23rd in economic outlook.

The ALEC report gave Iowa high marks and a No. 1 ranking for its $7.25 state minimum wage and its being a right-to-work state, giving workers the choice to join a union. However, Iowa received low marks — and a rank of 50 or dead last among states — for levying an estate/inheritance tax. The report also ranked Iowa 46th for its corporate income tax rate.

Gov. Terry Branstad, who participated Monday in the U.S. Chamber’s bipartisan governors summit in Washington, D.C., talked more about how Iowa needs to improve rather than on what it’s doing right. Branstad, a Republican who served as Iowa’s governor from 1983 to 1999, resumed office in January after 12 years of Iowa having a Democratic governor.

“The biggest concerns I’ve heard from business have to do with the regulatory and tax burdens that make it difficult to start a business or to expand and grow in Iowa,” Branstad said. “One of the first things I did was require a jobs impact statement on all new regulations. … We’re going to review all of our rules and regulations. We’re going to sunset them all and do a cost-benefit analysis on all governmental regulations.”

Branstad also said Iowa’s commercial and industrial property tax is “way out of whack” compared with other classes of property. He touted his proposal to make the tax more competitive by lowering it 40 percent over five to eight years.

Iowa’s governor found a receptive audience at the event by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes. The group has been a key backer of Republican candidates and spent $31.2 million in the 2010 election cycle, according to a January report by Public Citizen, a nonpartisan nonprofit aimed at being the people’s voice in Washington, D.C.

David Greenspon, president and owner of Competitive Edge Inc. in Urbandale, an advertising specialty manufacturing company that employs about 130 people, gave a business owner’s perspective on Iowa’s business climate at Monday’s U.S. Chamber event.

“As I got into Iowa, I decided I wanted to be in business there, and it was a very favorable environment because people would give you a chance,” Greenspon said Monday. “I didn’t have to have $100 million and I didn’t have to have a state development person call me up and say, ‘How about coming to Iowa?’ I was already there.”

Greenspon said that 28 years later, Competitive Edge is a sizable business in its field. But he said the advertising specialty manufacturing industry is 25 percent smaller than three years ago because of the economy.

“I’m blessed that we’ve always been profitable. We still are and we’ve had three years of bad weather and we haven’t let anybody go,” Greenspon said. “But we haven’t given raises. We don’t match 401(k)s anymore. We look at health care and look at the expense — $500 (a month) for a family — and you freak out.”

Greenspon is a key Republican supporter who has rented office space to numerous GOP candidates, including Branstad. He made news in September when he grilled President Barack Obama about the business climate during a backyard discussion in Des Moines.

At Monday’s event, he called for government incentives for businesses to provide health insurance, a reduction of regulatory control and a reduction of the tax burden to help the 27 million small businesses in America.

“In the beginning, there (were) no regulatory problems,” Greenspon said. “The government didn’t ask me to inspect every shipment, didn’t ask me for all these certificates of safety and material use. It was a lot simpler.”

Ironically, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s report highlights former Democratic Gov. Chet Culver’s three-year, $830 million bonding for infrastructure program funded with existing state gambling revenue to help Iowa recover from the 2008 natural disasters and preserve or create thousands of jobs.

Branstad and legislative Republicans have repeatedly criticized the I-JOBS program, saying that bonding will cause the state to go further in debt. Under the Branstad administration, the state plans to fulfill its commitments with that program, but has also made an effort to remove I-JOBS signs across the state and does not plan to continue the program in the future.

See the U.S. Chamber of Commerce report:

http://issuu.com/uschamber/docs/final-report-enterprising-states-email?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true

See the American Legislative Exchange Council report:

http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/tax/10rsps/rsps10-ia.pdf