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| B | Iowa |
• Population (rank): 2,982,085 (30)
• Average per capita income (rank): $23,115 (31)
• Total state spending (rank): $14,941,961,000 (31)
• Spending per capita (rank): $5,011 (30)
• Governor: Chet Culver (D)
• First elected: 11/2006
• Senate: 50 members: 30 D, 20 R
• Term limits: None
• House: 100 members: 53 D, 47 R
• Term limits: None
Iowa leaders don't like secrets, and they have put a high premium on sharing governmental successes and failures with the citizenry. A few clicks on a computer, and anyone can open up the "Results Iowa" section of the state's Web site, which shows the goals of an array of agencies and how far they've progressed toward achieving them. Last year, the Human Services agency added a "Digital Dashboard," which posts even more detailed reports on issues, such as the speed with which permanent homes are found for foster children.
Not all the news the state shares with the public is good. For example, like many states, Iowa is having difficulty recruiting specialized workers to serve in its rural areas. Doctors and nurses tend to gravitate toward larger urban areas where they can command higher salaries, leaving the recruitment pool for rural prisons and clinics rather shallow. As a stopgap measure, the state hired health professionals who serve more than one location, and began paying bonuses of as much as $15,000 to nurses who accept hard-to-fill positions.
Such adjustments are common in Iowa because the state has a thorough and thoughtful workforce planning process. Nancy Berggren, the personnel director, is focused on efforts to get even the smaller agencies to develop detailed staffing plans. She points to the state's aging workforce and the need for increased diversity as reasons why this planning is especially important.
Like other states, Iowa has fallen short on infrastructure maintenance for a long time. Until a couple of years ago, it had been spending only 25 percent of its limited road funds on maintenance. With growing awareness that roads were deteriorating, that figure is now 75 percent. That's the good news. The bad news is that 75 percent is far from enough. The Department of Transportation had originally hoped to get its roads, many of them built in the 1950s, up to acceptable condition by 2016. But the nationwide rise in the cost of construction materials has pushed that back.
Taken as a whole, Iowa still faces a $27.7 billion transportation funding shortage over the next two decades. The problem won't be fixed soon, but recently the DOT and the legislature held a series of well-attended public hearings throughout the state, hoping to raise public consciousness on the need for more road funds, and perhaps an increase in the gas tax.
One result was the "Time 21" report, a comprehensive look at Iowa's transportation needs over the next several decades. The state's counties and cities signed off on the Time 21 planning process, and for the first time, all the jurisdictions that receive a share of federal road funds have agreed on a list of priorities. The Time 21 effort didn't come with a pile of money attached, but it has finally led to some forward motion. "In the past," says Nancy Richardson, the DOT director, "the biggest discussions weren't what to build, but what percentage of the money everyone got."
Iowa has a reputation for sound financial management, and it has worked to maintain it. In recent years, leaders have developed a willingness to cooperate across regional and agency lines, and this has had a positive effect on many management practices. For example, representatives of the Legislative Services Agency, the Department of Management and the Department of Human Services have been meeting monthly, and one of their tasks is to arrive at a joint estimate of revenues received from the federal government. Prior to this arrangement, each department would come up with its own estimate, and would spend a good part of the year arguing about which figure was accurate. Now, says Dennis Prouty, the legislative services director, "we can talk about how to best administer Medicaid, instead of who's right."
For additional data and analysis, go to pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp.