Former Iowa Department of Economic Development Director Mike Tramontina today broke his three-month public silence since his abrupt resignation to defend Iowa’s tax credit policies.
The Register has written several stories this week outlining how Iowa law prohibits the release of information in most of the [...]
Iowa’s tax credit review has proven popular.
Roughly 150 people have crammed into the Urbandale Public Library for a meeting that is just beginning. Roughly 20 are standing.
On the line are dozens of tax breaks, mostly for businesses, that will cost the state an estimated $420 million in the current fiscal [...]
Dozens of money-saving measures or revenue enhancements that include massive technological consolidations to state e-mail and Internet systems, enhanced state debt collection and reductions to human resource staff were put in motion today in an executive order signed by Gov. Chet Culver.
The potential annual savings is $128.1 million, although Culver [...]
Iowans have a right to know which businesses obtain tax credits, some speakers at a hearing going on in Cedar Raids have said.
Others, however, argued that providing such information would tarnish the state’s business climate.
[...] A public hearing is about to begin about Iowa’s 32 tax credits that will cost taxpayers an estimated $420 million in the current fiscal year.
Gov. Culver ordered the review in light of ongoing budget problems as well as a scandal earlier this year in which movie makers allegedly used taxpayer [...]
The Onion, a farce news Web site, has reported that Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley has “perhaps irrevocably” damaged the ability of his Republican peers to pick up women at bars.
Grassley, this week, answered a question about his participation in federal farm subsidy programs on C-SPAN as [...]
Michael Kiernan
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan has called for Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley to apologize for his comments about children with special needs.
McKinley made the comments Tuesday in a meeting with The Des Moines Register.
Here’s the statement Kiernan just released:
State Sen. Paul McKinley [...]
A review of Iowa’s tax credits has been extended by a week to give departments more time to conduct a comprehensive analysis, Gov. Chet Culver announced today.
Culver, last month, ordered a review of 30 state tax credit incentives in the wake of a criminal probe into Iowa’s film program, a [...]
Troy Price, a spokesman for Gov. Chet Culver, issued a statement today, saying Republicans failed to offer solutions during an online interview with The Des Moines Register.
Josie Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the Iowa House Republicans issued the following response:
“Republicans have laid out a detailed agenda for [...]
Troy Price, a spokesman for Gov. Chet Culver, issued the following statement about statements made today by House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen and Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley during an interview with The Des Moines Register.
See the video replay here. More news coverage of the meetings with both Democrats [...]
In this Dec. 1996 file photo, Chelsea Clinton, right, sits with Marc Mezvinsky on the beach at Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP [...]
Fitzerald in a 2006 photo showing an unclaimed pistol (dated 1847) owned by Darwin Van Scoyoc at one time that was in the state's possession.
Story County Treasurer David Jamison, a Republican, will officially announce tomorrow that he has assembled a campaign committee [...]
Jim Gibbons, a Des Moines Republican trying to land his party’s nomination to run against U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell next year, has launched a new Web site.
Gibbons today also announced that Allison Kleis as his campaign treasurer. Kleis previously served as administrative assistant for Rep. Christopher Rants, a Republican from [...]
Roxanne Conlin, a Democrat challenging Sen. Charles Grassley, and U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley will hold roundtable events in Davenport and Waterloo on Monday.
The events will focus upon health care and jobs.
The first event will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, local 431 board [...]
Here’s a schedule for a series of debates between Rep. Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City and Jon Narcisse, a former Des Moines School Board member.
Rants is running for governor and Narcisse, a Democrat, has indicated interest in challenging Gov. Chet Culver.
The debates, each from 6 to 7:30 p.m,. [...]
Ottumwa doctor Mariannette Miller-Meeks on Monday will officially announce a second run against Dave Loebsack for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
Miller-Meeks, 54, a Republican, will make a series of stops in the 15-county district located in eastern and southern Iowa. Barbara Grassley, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley’s wife, [...]
Former Senate Majority Leader and Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Stewart Iverson is considering a run against Rep. McKinley Bailey, a conservative Democrat.
“I’m not going to make any decisions until probably sometime after the first of the year,” Iverson, 59, said today. “If I were to [...]
Former Des Moines School board member Jonathan Narcisse has distributed an e-mail he calls an “open letter to Mr. Bob Vander Plaats” in which he ends by declining a job offer.
But a spokesman for Vander Plaats said the offer was nothing more than an invitation to [...]
Iowa next year will face the largest budget gap in its history: more than $1 billion, a new budget review projects.
The review, released Wednesday by the state’s Legislative Services Agency, shows Iowa lawmakers will face a projected shortfall between revenue and expenses of $1.07 billion in the fiscal year [...]
A police union today approved furloughs for its state employees but warned Iowa officials that they will not consider future cutbacks if the state fails to make adequate budget adjustments.
The move means that 20 state troopers, 20 gaming enforcement officers, one fire inspector and two special agents in the Division [...]
Iowa will receive $1.16 million from federal stimulus money for the state to launch an electronic health records system, Gov. Chet Culver announced this afternoon.
The grant is part of a 90-percent federal match that will help the state’s human services and public health departments begin an incentive program for medical [...]
Former Des Moines School Board member Jonathan Narcisse declined to say today if he will run for governor, clearly leaving the door open for a run.
Narcisse, a Democrat, was asked the question in regard to a new series of public debates he has scheduled with Christopher [...]
Rep. Christopher Rants (far left) and Jonathan Narcisse have agreed to join for a series of public debates.
The debates will be set up more as a forum for public discussion on key issues, said Rants, a Republican from Sioux City and candidate for governor.
The [...]
Gov. Chet Culver ordered a review Thursday of the state’s tax credits in the wake of Iowa’s film fiasco, a dire budget forecast and an explosion in the cost of tax breaks.
The credits are projected this fiscal year to cost the state $489 million in refunds or uncollected taxes, which [...]
Iowa’s low-income families pay a higher percent of their incomes in taxes than the state’s rich residents, a report released today shows.
“No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers,” said Matthew Gardner, the lead author of the report and the executive director [...]
Dozens of state troopers or gaming enforcement offices would be kept on the state’s payrolls, according to a tentative agreement with Gov. Chet Culver.
In exchange, about 640 members of the State Police Officers Council would be required to take five unpaid days for the remaining seven months of the fiscal [...]
Pictures of the triathlon that Gov. Chet Culver participated in last weekend have been posted online.
While the pictures do not include detailed descriptions, it appears that Culver wore a yellow cap while swimming. In another picture, he’s standing shirtless before the bike portion.
Culver completed the Boy Ranch Triathlon in Florida [...]
Four of Iowa’s top political leaders will battle to win a “supermarket sweep” contest Wednesday.
Teams will be asked to fill their cars with food from Walmart in five minutes. All the food in the cars will be donated to the Food Bank of Iowa Teams will also receive a donation [...]
Iowa’s judicial branch will lay off 105 employees and cut another 100 vacant positions in addition to reducing hours of 58 employees, officials announced this afternoon.
However, the court will not abide by Gov. Chet Culver’s 10 percent across-the-board request.
Instead, the cuts amount to 7.1 percent of the court system’s $160 [...]
A projected $184 million drop in federal stimulus cash for Iowa’s Medicaid program next year spells trouble to Iowa’s most vulnerable residents, economists warned today.
Medicaid is a state and federal program that provides health care to nearly 411,000 Iowans. The majority of participants – 54 percent – are children while [...]
Iowa’s judicial branch staff – including all judges and magistrates – has been ordered to close office and take 10 days of unpaid leave between Dec. 4 and June 18, 2010, according t a notice posted on the court’s Web site today.
The reduction will save $4.1 million, according to the [...]
If state workers in the AFSCME labor union vote to take five unpaid days off within the next seven months, they would save 479 jobs across all state departments, including in human services, the revenue department, prisons, state patrol and other agencies.
All AFSCME members would be safe from layoffs until [...]
A tentative agreement between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has been reached, a spokesman for the union said this morning.
AFSCME, which represents more than 13,000 state employees, will hold a press conference today at 1 p.m.
At least 180 state workers will be laid [...]
© 2009, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.
Iowa has hired 752 people since Gov. Chet Culver called for a hiring freeze 11 months ago, records obtained by The Des Moines Register show.
That’s nearly the number of state workers initially pegged for layoffs to meet Culver’s order of a 10 percent [...]
Terry Branstad’s comment about how the legislature “couldn’t take the heat from the tap, tap tap of the white canes” to merge the agency for the blind requires a public apology, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman said this morning.
Branstad made the comment last week in a [...]
Register file photo
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be in Iowa Saturday to speak at a Republican fundraiser and took a few minutes to speak with reporters via phone.
Pawlenty is the vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He also recently formed the “Freedom First” [...]
The National Criminal Justice Commission would be prohibited from considering drug legalization or decriminalization even for medical purposes under an amendment proposed by Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley.
Grassley submitted the amendment last week as part of a bill that was on the Senate Judiciary Committee agenda. [...]
Last night’s election wins in Virginia and New Jersey show Obama’s endorsements didn’t work, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said today.
“It doesn’t say that people are against Obama but is sure says it doesn’t do much good to have him campaign for you,” Grassley said to reporters.
Bob [...]
Register file photo
U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa released the following editorial this week in light of the ongoing health care reform debate:
When Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s healthcare reform bill – all 1990 pages of it – lands on the desks of Members of Congress [...]
Register file photo
U.S. Rep. Tom Latham of Ames spoke on the House floor Tuesday about health care, saying the health care bill unveiled last week “isn’t what people want.”
[...]
An Iowa Supreme Court decision that granted marriage equality for same-sex couples is a key reason why residents should reject the state’s Supreme Court retention bids, Rod Roberts said in a press release this week.
Roberts, a state representative from Carroll and a GOP candidate for governor, [...]
(This is the print version of the story about Sen. Tom Harkin’s health-insurer price investigation.)
Sen. Tom Harkin said Tuesday he was launching an investigation into health insurance pricing, asking four major insurers to justify their pricing practices.
An industry spokesman called the move unfair and misguided.
Harkin, chairman of the Committee on [...]
Four major yet private health insurance companies are being asked to justify to a U.S. Senate committee their pricing policies and to provide detailed information on any employee or officer who makes $5 million or more a year.
The investigation, launched today by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, comes after small business [...]
A planned shindig Wednesday in Sergeant Bluff where Lt. Gov. Patty Judge will give out $250,000 is “insanity,” Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City said today.
Judge will help present the city with the money, which is part of Gov. Chet Culver’s $830 million I-JOBS program to help [...]
Iowa’s state government collected $151.4 million less in the first quarter this year as compared with the same period last year, information released today shows.
In October, revenue was down 2.7 percent as compared to October of 2008. However, there were some bright spots. Corporate income tax collections were up by [...]
Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has written a new book and will be in Iowa Sunday for promotions.
The book – his seventh – is titled “A Simple Christmas.” It contains 12 true stories from Huckabee’s life that he said is intended to help people better [...]
Norm Sterzenbach, the executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, sent a Halloween-themed press release today.
The release says “Iowans have every reason to be spooked about the dark, chilling vision of Iowa that’s presented by the GOP candidates for Governor.”
Here’s the 10 reasons why, according to Sterzenbach’s release: (The [...]
Republicans have selected Joshua Thurston to run for House District 33 in a special Nov. 24 election.
Thurston, 27, works at Cargill West in Cedar Rapids and is a member of Teamsters Local 238. He joined the Army in February 2002 and served in Iraq from March 2004 to April 2005. [...]
Sen. Staci Appel, D-Ackworth, announced today she’s running for reelection.
She’s being challenged by Kent Sorenson, a state representative from Indianola.
Here’s here press release:
State Senator Staci Appel of Warren County announced today that she is running for re-election to the Iowa Senate in 2010 and [...]
PICTURED L to R: House Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque, Running-Marquardt and Taylor.
Democrat Kirsten Running-Marquardt, 32, of Cedar Rapids has been nominated by Linn County Democrats to run for Iowa House District 33.
The special election is Nov. 24.
The [...]
Families that wrongfully avoided tuition at a state-run training school must pay or face legal consequences, officials from the University of Northern Iowa said today.
The Malcolm Price Laboratory School at the university became under criminal investigation after a state audit this year found that nine parents – including Rep. Kerry [...]
Mike Blouin, right, thanks Danny Homan for his help in 2006 with his campaign for governor after giving his concession speech.
The president of Iowa’s largest [...]
Rick Autry, an attorney for the Iowa’s Employment Appeal Board, said the state’s workforce has remained tense since the across-the-board cuts were announced.
Autry does not belong to a union. He is unsure if he will be asked to participate in the seven-day furlough since the vast majority of the board’s [...]
One of the programs that was backfilled today was to a state volunteer program that provided a court-appointed advocate for children in foster care.
The Iowa Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program recruits, trains and supports adult community volunteers who represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in court [...]
The state patrol lieutenant who oversees security at Post 16, which includes security at the State Capitol, said the union negotiations are appropriate.
That post could lose as many as 10 of 25 employees, three of which are troopers.
“I can certainly speak for myself. I would do anything I could if [...]
The Iowa Pharmacy Association will be sent a letter from the House Ethics Committee outlining the group’s failure to file a report detailing costs of a legislative function it sponsored in February.
The complaint was in regard to the association’s failure to file a report detailing the cost of a February [...]
Iowa’s attorney general wants to recoup some of the $32 million in film tax credits awarded by the state, but the odds of that may be slim, a tax-credit specialist said Tuesday.
Bruce Deichl, owner of Tax Credits LLC, a New Jersey business, said that he believes Iowa law would not [...]
Iowa could challenge all $32 million of tax breaks to film makers that have already been awarded, the chief of staff to the Iowa Attorney General told lawmakers today.
“The law was applied incorrectly,” Eric Tabor of the attorney general’s office said to the legislature’s Government Oversight Committee.
The program was suspended [...]
An ethics hearing against the Iowa Pharmacy Association will begin Wednesday at 9 a.m.
The complaint is in regard to the association’s failure to file a report detailing the cost of a February function open to lawmakers that was attended by Rep. Kerry Burt before he was arrested on a charge [...]
A Muscatine radio manager today announced his plans to run for an Iowa House seat.
DeWayne Hopkins, 61, a Republican, announced today that he is running for House District 80, a seat currently held by Nathan Reichert, a Democrat from Muscatine.
Reichert, 39, said today that it’s likely that he will [...]
Before last week’s announcement of planned layoffs, state agencies were receiving money for more than 1,100 jobs even though they were vacant, prompting one legislative leader to accuse agencies of maintaining an unauthorized “slush fund.”
The practice of keeping “phantom employees” on the books artificially inflates the state budget and allows [...]
© 2009, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.
Debate and angst over plans announced last week for nearly 800 layoffs of state workers have focused Iowans’ attention on the size and cost of state government.
Before any layoffs, Iowa has about the same number of state employees today, excluding university jobs, as [...]
Cuts: Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals
Amount cut: $6,139,760
Positions cut: 18.5
Layoffs: 11
Total budget after cut: $6,139,760
Foster care cases to help regulate welfare for more than 1,000 children would stop being reviewed by local citizen volunteer boards while as many as 200 kids would lose their court-appointed [...]
Amount cut: $10,819,190
Vacant positions eliminated: 0
Layoffs: 4
Total positions cut: 4
Total budget after cut: $97,372,704
Taxes will increase under a plan proposed by the Iowa Department of Management.
Iowa’s homestead and family farm tax credit programs will be reduced by $10.1 million, under today’s plan. Most of the money [...]
Amount cut: $321,732
Positions cut: Unknown
Layoffs: Unknown
Total budget after cut: $2.8 million
The Iowa Secretary of State, like other elected offices or branches of government that receives general fund money, is not required to submit their proposed cuts today.
Secretary of State Michael Mauro said his office continues to work on [...]
Iowans will likely see longer waits when they attempt to reclaim property due to budget cuts, State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald said today.
There may also be times in which the office will close early to the general public so that staff can focus upon required reports and other responsibilities, he said.
The [...]
Union agreements that allow state employees with more seniority to “bump” less-experienced colleagues when the state lays off workers could result in a less skilled, less productive work force, business and workplace leaders warned this week.
As early as Tuesday, state agency department heads are to recommend how they will meet [...]
Iowa Democrats have launched a new Web site taking a shot at former Gov. Terry Branstad, who has taken action indicating his intent to challenge Chet Culver next year.The Web site: www.TerryLovesTaxes.com
The site, currently, transfers people to another site: IowaKnowsBetter.com, another site run by Democrats.
TerryLovesTaxes.com launches [...]
A call by Gov. Chet Culver for state workers to voluntarily reduce their salaries got a quick push-back from one union leader Thursday, who noted his group has yet to hear from Culver’s office since the $565 million across-the-board cut in state spending was announced last week.
Culver has had rocky [...]
Gov. Chet Culver is participating in a Triathlon.
The Nov. 15 Boys Ranch Triathlon in Florida includes a 3.1 –mile sprint, almost 12.5 miles of biking and 3.1 miles of running.
A doctor has given Culver a clean bill of health, giving him the OK to participate in the event, said spokesman [...]
Mid-year tuition hikes at the state’s three university’s are possible but Gov. Chet Culver said students shouldn’t take the entire hit.
“I hope they don’t just resort to a tuition increase to come up with the 10 percent,” Culver said. “I’m concerned about that number and I think it needs to [...]
The future of Iowa’s film office will remain unknown until key state investigations are complete, Gov. Chet Culver said today.
“I can’t give you and answer to that question because we have to complete our investigation before the taxpayers of Iowa know if that’s been a net plus or a net [...]
Iowa’s massive and multiple e-mail systems that cost taxpayers $1.5 million a year in maintenance make no sense, Gov. Chet Culver said today.
Iowa’s state government has 25 different e-mail systems with more than 59 different computer servers, according to a report from the Iowa Department of Administrative Services that was [...]
Gov. Chet Culver said today that “it makes a lot of sense” that state employees volunteer to reduce their own salaries like he did yesterday.
Culver already made the request to department directors.
“I believe this will have a domino effect. I think leadership starts at the top and I do believe [...]
Budget cuts will likely delay critical court services such as probation revocation hearings, child support payments and protective orders, compromising public safety and indirectly causing higher long-term costs for taxpayers, court advocates warned Monday.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus warned Monday that a 10 percent across-the-board cut, amounting to $16 [...]
Rep. Dick Taylor, a 78-year-old Cedar Rapids Democrat, has resigned, saying he wants to focus on his family.
“From raising the minimum wage to expanded preschool to health care for every Iowa child, I’m proud of my service in the House helping middle-class families,” said Taylor [...]
The legislature’s State Government Reorganization Commission is urging Iowans to again post budget-saving ideas to a state Web site.
The site, which asks people for suggestions for improving government, has been ongoing since February. However, in light of last week’s call from Gov. Chet Culver to cut $565 million from the [...]
Iowans should anticipate a sluggish court system, Chief Justice Marsha Ternus warned this morning in a memo to judicial branch staff. (See the memo here.)
Ternus sent the memo this morning, noting that the branch is gearing up to chop as much as $16 million from [...]
State Auditor David Vaudt just spoke at the Polk County Republican Fall Picnic fundraiser.
He told the crowd it’s a good time for Republicans to continue to stress fiscal responsibility. He mentioned the CIETC scandal and said many current elected officials are not listening to calls for fiscal responsibility.
“In God we [...]
Roughly 150 people have packed into the unheated Flynn Barn as part of a GOP fundraiser tonight at Living History Farms.
The Fall Picnic and Gubernatorial Forum is a fundraiser for the Polk County Republicans that includes a buffet of food from the Machine Shed.
The $30-per person event will include 10-minutes [...]
Schools have an obligation to use their savings to offset Iowa’s 10 percent across-the-board cut, said the president of the Iowa State Education Association, which represents more than 34,000 education employees.
“We believe school districts have an obligation to use the over $400 million in cash reserves [...]
Iowa’s state budgets are based on estimates that have been as much as $285 million off the mark in recent years, leaving some to question the reliability of revenue estimates that will be made public today.
Iowa State University economics professor Dave Swenson said the estimates are based largely on others’ [...]
Here’s a fuller story on the investigation announced today by the attorney general:
A criminal investigation has been launched into Iowa’s film tax-credit program, state officials announced this morning, just minutes after a consultant’s report was released detailing abuses in the program.
The report alerted state officials to numerous possible violations and [...]
A criminal investigation has been launched into Iowa’s film tax-credit program, state officials announced this morning just minutes after a consultant’s report was released.
“The Attorney General’s Office will work to recover any tax credits or funds obtained illegally or not in compliance with the Film Office statute,” a press release [...]
When Iowa lawmakers were considering creation of an income tax credit for filmmakers in 2007, they passed a major amendment without knowing it would increase the state’s cost by tens of millions of dollars annually.
The amendment — allowing filmmakers to sell their unused tax credits — was approved by the [...]
Chet Culver was one of 22 governors to sign a letter this week to congressional leaders that expresses support for health care reform.
“Sky-rocketing health care costs hurt families, force businesses to cut or drop health benefits and cause already strained state budget deficits to significantly grow. [...]
Iowa’s revenue continues its downward slide, falling $141 million in the first three months of this fiscal year, a report released today shows.
The slide could equate to an across-the-board cut, which would be bad news for Iowans who depend on critical state services such as health care or education.
The state’s [...]
Vice President Joe Biden will be the headline speaker at the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, Iowa Democrats announced this morning.
The dinner is Nov. 21 in Des Moines and is the premier Democratic state party fundraisers for the party.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have the Vice President [...]
A movie director today acknowledged receiving Iowa tax credits for purchases that included a Land Rover sports utility vehicle, an iPod and a feather bed with fitted sheets, but he defended the purchases as allowed by law and cleared by multiple audits.
Bruce Isacson, director of the movie “South Dakota,” [...]
Sen. Matt McCoy “is working to ensure there is inadequate regulation” of Iowa’s animal breeding industry, according to a press release sent this morning. (Emphasis added.)
The release goes on to talk about McCoy’s role in the Legislature’s Care of Animals in Commercial Enterprises Study Committee, which [...]
The presidents of Iowa’s three public universities are eligible for up to $80,000 in bonuses this year, which Republican lawmakers are saying should be dismissed in light of harsh financial times.
“The discussion of these bonuses along with the creation last winter of a new Chief of Staff position at the [...]
A huge dip in corporate tax refunds is an indication that Gov. Chet Culver’s administration delayed repaying businesses in order to balance its budget, Republicans are alleging.
Culver’s staffers and a state revenue department official denied the charges but Republicans say the numbers speak for themselves.
Corporate tax refunds in July were [...]
Gov. Chet Culver will take $45.3 million out of the state’s emergency cash reserves to balance last year’s budget, according to a news release issued a few minutes ago by the state’s management department.
For the administration, that’s considered a victory.
Earlier estimates from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency indicated the [...]
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad had a 20-point lead over current Gov. Chet Culver in a phone survey taken this week by Rasmussen Reports.
Branstad, a Republican and longest-serving governor in Iowa history, had 54 percent of support as compared to Culver’s 34 percent, according to the survey.
Branstad, who did not [...]
The legislature’s Government Oversight Committee will not immediately review the controversy surrounding the state’s film tax breaks, lawmakers announced this morning.
The decision brought about objections from the highest-ranking House Republican on the committee, who said the tax breaks are Iowa’s version of “Cash for Clunkers.”
“We have [...]
The film tax break fiasco is bigger than just the purchase of luxury vehicles and threatens the state’s entire budget for critical services Iowans depend upon, Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said today.
“There is plenty of time to assign blame and point fingers later,” Rants, a [...]
Fred Hubbell was appointed as the Iowa Department of Economic Development today by Gov. Chet Culver.
Hubbell, of Des Moines, has led global companies as well as civic initiatives in Iowa, Culver noted in a press release. Because of previous commitments, he will begin the interim appointment [...]
Gov. Chet Culver said today he is outraged at the reports about how taxpayer money has been used in a special tax break for movies.
The director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, Michael Tramontina, resigned Friday, the same day Culver announced he was suspending the [...]
[...]
