Governor Terry Branstad said today he is signing an executive order that will require a “jobs impact statement” for new government rules and regulations. Branstad says it means there will be a cost/benefit analysis and each agency that proposes a rule will have to indicate what impact the rule will have on jobs.
He says it’s part of an effort to know the impact a rule will have on jobs and their goal of creating 200,000 new jobs. Branstad, a Republican, says the order is one of the things to come out of their town hall meetings across the state where they’ve been talking with people about rules and regulations. Branstad says they heard stories from communities like Alexander, where the town had 61 homes, but 11 where vacant, and under state rules they were still supposed to spend thousands of dollars on a new sewer system.
Branstad says he was also in Ottumwa and the mayor and city manager told him they have been required to increase annual sewer rates to $50 per household, and there are more requirements mandate by the D-N-R. “This is really not affordable for that community,” Branstad says.
Senator Merlin Bartz, a Republican from Grafton joined Branstad at his weekly news conference to talk about the issue. Bartz was asked how the Democrat’s bill differed from the Republican plans. “I’ve had an opportunity to very briefly look at the Red Tape Commission bill, and I think the greatest irony of the Red Tape Commission bill is it sets up another commission,” Bartz says, “One of the things that we’re trying to do in out gathering of information, is we’re going directly to the folks who’re directly impacted by administrative rules and regulations, and as you all know, they have the same effect as law.”
Bartz says both Republican and Democrat lawmakers have been invited on the job tours, and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds and the governor say lawmakers from both parties have attended the events. Reynolds says the tour she went on in Osage and Cresco, the legislators from both parties showed up, and Governor Branstad says he saw the same thing on tours to Ames and Newton.
Branstad says there were also a lot of citizens there with specific concerns. Branstad says the goal is to identify will identify policies that hurt job retention and development before they are enacted.