Well, Since You Dared Me…
Nathan Greene
in Statehouse Issues, Gronstal, 2008 Flood
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4 Comments
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1 Reference
By Emily Geiger
A few days ago, I wrote that perhaps Iowa should wait and see what federal flood assistance will be provided before jumping the gun and changing the laws so that we can go into debt to pay for flood relief.
I took some flack for that in the blogosphere from some uninformed writers of a liberal bent who I’m sure would love to give Supreme Iowa Democrat Mike Gronstal lots more (borrowed) money to throw around to his liberal buddies at the expense of Iowa taxpayers (and our grandchildren). It seems my post was (intentionally) misinterpreted to mean that Iowans should sit on their heinies and wait for the feds to come in and fix everything.
Iowans can fix most things ourselves. It’s just a matter of who is going to pay for it all after the fact. This isn’t like New Orleans, where (I heard some relief worker on the radio the other day say that) out-of-state volunteers had to wake up residents at 10 a.m. so that the volunteers could get inside the houses where the residents then sat around and watched the volunteers work.
Said uninformed liberal blogger actually “dared” we conservative bloggers to address certain talking points.
Here’s a talking point for you. My good friend Krusty pointed out yesterday that in 1993, a total of $1.4 billion was spent on flood relief. Of that figure, only $14.9 million was needed from the state of Iowa. That’s right, Iowa only had to cough up 10% of the total cost.
So, even if this recovery costs 2-3 times what the 1993 flood did, we’re still looking at spending less than $50 million at the state level.
Still think it’s a great idea to jump in blind, deplete the $600+ million in the Rainy Day Fund and forever change state law so that Mike Gronstal can have unfettered access to as much borrowed money as he wants?
Me neither.
Nathan Greene
As a commenter pointed out, I carried my decimal point wrong. In 1993, Iowa was actually only responsible for 1% of the total recovery costs, not 10%. So many zeros, so little space on my calculator screen...
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Reader Comments (4)
14.9 million is only 1% of 1.4 Billion. If the State of Iowa needs to pick up the tab on 10% of 5-6 Billion, we are looking at 500 - 600 Million dollars. We should keep our powder dry until the feds pony up as much as possible.
The biggest issue with what you state is the part about "if Iowa gets to pick up 10%" This is a big assumption.
SO, let's not give any borrowed money to the darned liberals...let's wait and see how much the federal government gives us first???? Where the heck do you think the money from the feds comes from? They BORROW IT! And for all the blowhardiness of the fiscally conservative Conservatives, they've certainly borrowed more over the past 25+ years than those evil liberals have done. Think about what you're saying: "Let's take everyone else's money and not spend much of our own." To play it your way, I can turn around and say "My state needs help, too. And the GAO and IRS show that we're one of the states that pays more to the fed than we get back. So where's our money." If you think you can fix it yourself, pay for it yourself!
I believe that now is the time to rely on Compassionate Conservatism. I am sure that Iowans will be more comfortable accepting the means to rebuild from church groups and charities than the Federal Government.
Look how well it worked in Louisiana!
You too can be like Blanche and rely "On the kindness of strangers"