SIOUX CITY – Gov. Chet Culver’s much-ballyhooed I-Jobs tour is “nothing more than an attempt to buy re-election next year by making Iowans pay hundreds of millions of dollars over the next two decades,” Sioux City Republican Bob Vander Plaats said today.
“It’s ironic but perfectly appropriate that Chet Culver would travel to Marshalltown to bluster about starting a recovery with a plan that will cost Iowans twice as much it puts into the economy and creates far fewer jobs than he promised. That’s because this is the same governor where his total lack of leadership cost Marshalltown more than 1,500 jobs, millions in economic activity and substantial tax revenue because Alliant Energy canceled plans in March to build a $1.8 billion utility plant there.”
He added, “People in Marshalltown know firsthand the domino effect of lost opportunities that have resulted from Chet Culver’s mismanagement. They know his announcement to rebuild the Iowa Veterans Home at a cost of $22.5 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the economic activity he cost them – and they’re not going to forget it.”
Culver had claimed his borrow-and-build plan would create or retain as many as 30,000 jobs. David Swenson, an Iowa State University economics professor, calculates the number will be approximately 4,050, according to The Des Moines Register.
More than 70 percent of Iowans said the state shouldn’t borrow money for Culver’s borrow-and-spend plan but the first-term Democrat was undeterred. Instead, he forced passage of a plan that borrows $830 million and will require Iowans to pay back $1.7 billion in principal, interest and other costs.
“Why should we be surprised? This is a governor who presided over a 17-percent increase in state spending his first two years in office and worked to increase spending again this year while giving us the biggest budget in Iowa history,” Vander Plaats said. “He may buy some jobs now but it will be the Iowans who will be working the next 20 years who have to pay the bill. The I-JOBS program is the gift that will keep on taking for Iowa taxpayers. More than rebuilding Iowa’s infrastructure, Chet Culver thinks it will rebuild his image so he can win another term. Iowans aren’t that shortsighted and Chet Culver is going to learn that for himself next year.”
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 02:13PM 