Insular leaders keep secrets, leave Iowans in the dark
Cutting out the minority’s input and oversight has real-world consequences and can lead only to worse government.
When we taxpayers entrust money to our state government, we have pretty reasonable expectations. We expect that our public servants will use state resources responsibly. We expect that our money will be invested in high-priority areas. We expect that our democratically elected representatives will attempt to do — or at least give lip service to — what they promised when running for office.
And there’s a reason that “Trust but verify” is a good motto, so we have checks and balances built into our system. Separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Election of our state’s attorney general and auditor independently of the governor. Opportunities for public input on bills before they become laws. And transparency laws that (try to) make the government open and accountable to Iowans.
Unfortunately, these checks haven’t been keeping our state government operating transparently lately.
There’s been an abrupt about-face from the Terry Branstad administration, one of the most transparent in memory, to the Kim Reynolds administration, which has the gall to use our tax dollars to hide what it is doing from us. The Reynolds administration has been sued more than once for refusing to comply with Iowa’s transparency laws. And the reticence at the top is trickling down: city and county governments are also dodging questions from voters and journalists alike.
If you think the independent legislature will be of help here, think again. Although there are Government Oversight Committees, there hasn’t been a whole lot of oversight happening. They have not investigated the kinds of major events they ought to be keeping an eye on lately, from fishy uses of federal funds to questionable no-bid contracts.
Worse, the legislative branch is just as guilty as the executive of obfuscation. Take the unpopular private school voucher program that was recently rushed through the Legislature. Legislative Republicans decided what the bill would look like in caucus, rejected all proposed amendments, skipped key committees, ignored overwhelmingly negative public input, and pushed the bill through under cover of darkness. Reynolds signed it the next morning.
On top of this, legislative Republicans are hiding their reasons for voting for or against bills. On rejecting the first proposed map for redistricting, we saw huge numbers of overwhelmingly favorable public comments but heard only the vague objections of a single Republican speaker before the map was rejected on a straight party-line vote. Similarly, on vouchers, we heard many specific objections to the bill but only vague platitudes about “school choice” to justify it. In the absence of public discussion, we are left to speculate about our lawmakers’ motivations. The most obvious answer, campaign donors, does little to instill trust in our government.
Nor can the media fill the transparency gap. Iowa Senate Republicans banished reporters to the upper gallery. Reynolds cut back on news conferences before apparently stopping them altogether; her most recent one was in July of last year. Again, this change is a striking reversal from her predecessor, who held them weekly, even after having his jaw wired shut from a sledding accident.
The one bright spot? Auditor Rob Sand is letting us know about some of the more questionable expenditures our governor has made.
All of this hiding and shutting out goes against democratic principles: Our government is supposed to be by the people and for the people, not the Party. The people of the minority party point out the majority’s blind spots and hold them accountable. And the general public’s participation is vital to bringing lawmakers back down from politics to reality; the people who are directly affected by laws and policies often know better what the consequences of changes are likely to be. Cutting out our input and oversight has real-world consequences and can lead only to worse government.
What we are getting at the moment, in short, does not meet our most basic expectations of democratic government. We can and should demand better.
Shannon Patrick and Kelcey Patrick-Ferree live in Iowa.
Originally published in the Iowa City Press-Citizen on February 11, 2023.