MARION, Iowa - Calling Iowa’s economic development agency “dysfunctional and scandal-ridden,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad said Tuesday he’d replace it with a new public-private partnership.

Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, Branstad’s opponent in the Nov. 2 election, said the plan was “very light” on specifics and showed Branstad is out of touch because the state already partners with private companies to recruit and retain the jobs they provide.

Existing state economic development programs should be evaluated and replaced if necessary, Branstad told an audience of about 100 at Rathje Construction in Marion.

“Our current tool box is an alphabet soup of programs that many find confusing and complex,” Branstad said, arguing that Iowa needs fewer and more focused programs to attract business.

If elected, Branstad said he would seek the reorganization of the agency as the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress under a public-private commission headed by the Kim Reynolds, who is running for lieutenant governor on his ticket.

The organization would be headed by a CEO with a track record of “real world economic development success,” Branstad said.

“Our economic development professionals must think and act like customer service representatives who aggressively and proactively solve problems so Iowa can make the ‘sale’ to keep or create jobs,” Branstad said.

Groups such as the Iowa Business Council, Association of Business and Industry, Chamber Alliance, and Iowa Area Development Group would be represented on the independent commission that would oversee the
department, Branstad said.

At a separate appearance in Des Moines, Culver said it appeared Branstad was recycling an idea offered by Doug Gross during his unsuccessful GOP bid for governor in 2002. He said Branstad offered a “very light” one-page plan for Iowa’s economic development future.

“I’m asking Terry Branstad today, where is the beef?” Culver said during an Iowa State Fair event.

“Terry Branstad’s campaign manager yesterday said that the purpose of today’s press conference that Branstad had was to put some meat on the bone. Well, we’re still looking for the meat. We want to know where is the beef when it comes to Terry Branstad’s plan for Iowa, and he certainly got it wrong when it comes to economic development for Iowa,” he said.

“What Terry Branstad doesn’t know is that over the last three years we have worked successfully with 251 businesses across America and around the world, including IBM and Microsoft and Google, to bring 20,000 jobs to this state,” Culver added. “And Terry Branstad wants to take us backwards on economic development.”

Branstad offered Indiana as an example of the kind of change he’d like to see, praising Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel’s approach to trimming and streamlining government.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation is organized as a public-private partnership governed by a 12-member board. Chaired by Daniels, its makeup reflects the state’s geographic and economic diversity, according to the agency’s web site.

Branstad said Indiana has outpaced Illinois, Michigan and other surrounding states in job creation because of its partnership approaches.

Culver campaign staff members also noted those states currently have higher unemployment rates than Iowa.

Iowa also needs to make its economic development agency more Internet-friendly, Branstad said, saying that surrounding states like Nebraska offer web sites with features like online calculators that demonstrate how their economic development programs help businesses.

Although somewhat more expected, Branstad also said wants to cut corporate income taxes in half and roll back commercial property taxes as governor.

Commercial property in Iowa have not benefited from property tax rollback formulas of the sort enjoyed by residential and agricultural properties. As a result, Branstad said, most major commercial projects undertaken receive local property tax help, such as a property tax abatement or tax increment financing.

Branstad said he’d work to cut the valuations of commercial property back from 100 percent of market value to 60 to 65 percent for new construction. For existing construction, he said he would favor a phased-in reduction from the current 100 percent of assessed valuation to 60 to 65 percent over a period of years.

Branstad had already said he planned to make job creation a top priority.
“With nearly 114,000 Iowans out of work and an unemployment rate at a 24-year high, there is no greater priority for our chief executive than job creation,” Branstad said.

Branstad’s own job creation goal is 200,000 new jobs for the state.
Audience member Doug Laird, a commercial real estate agent in Cedar Rapids, left the speech with a smile.

Laird said commercial property taxes are a big enough business expense that they can make the difference between some businesses coming to Iowa and going to another state. He said one category of the rent paid by commercial businesses, called common area maintenance, can be made up 60 to 70 percent by property taxes.