It should astonish us that the City of Storm Lake and Buena Vista County are deposing each other in an absurd lawsuit where justice will be done only for the Des Moines lawyers. The city is suing the county for tax increment financing revenues that were sent to the wrong accounts, such as the Storm Lake School District.
It’s disturbing that a judge has not found a way to settle this matter before each entity spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fairly simple claim. At one time the city, county and state department of management reportedly agreed that the county had shorted the city on tax revenues. An audit that was never done could have determined the amount, and a negotiation that never happened could have arrived at a figure to satisfy the city.
Instead, the city sued the county for the city’s own failure to pay attention.
A good effort by a judge should have sent this case to a quick mediation and resolution. Instead, the court has allowed public officials to play with our money. By the time it is done, the amount spent in court could be greater than the (unknown) amount in dispute.
We should get a new city manager, a new board of supervisors and a fastidious sweep of the courthouse out of the deal. Instead, we will get a court result dissatisfactory to the taxpayers with all the characters at odds still playing their roles.
This should have been settled by the city and county long before this. At least the depositions could shed some light on how big of a bungle this is. The county owes the city money. How much? The county knows but won’t show its cards to the public. While blowing other people’s money, they think this is their sovereign domain and is of no concern to the unwashed. This is one reason why people don’t trust government. The county messed everything up while the city failed to pay attention. Nothing changes.
Municipal elections are coming up in November. City council seats are open, along with the mayor. The county you can get after next year, if there is a judicial rendering by then.
The whole affair does not instill confidence among the public in local government, state oversight or judicial pragmatism.
An interesting chart from financial website Sherwood News last week showed that the United States is now a net importer of beef. Beef imports rose by a third since 2022 to 4.6 billion pounds. Exports amounted to 3 billion pounds of beef.
It has happened before but rarely by this type of spread — in 2004 US beef exports fell by 82% on a mad cow scare. This time, imports are soaring as high prices persist.
Several factors are at play.
Extreme drought around the Texas panhandle for several years thinned cattle herds all the way up to Nebraska. It will only get more difficult as heat swells and the Ogallala Aquifer rapidly declines from livestock, irrigation and human consumption.
The US is not seen as a reliable trading partner as it picks fights with the entire world. US agriculture has been losing export markets since Trump’s first trade war, which was continued quietly by the Biden Administration. This, too, will only get worse as Brazil steps into the void.
Producer groups and processors have failed to promote American beef to the world. They also have failed to help keep fellow producers in business.
We import much of our vegetable produce. This also will become more challenging amid trade wars and climate challenges in California and Texas.
Food costs are sticky high because of climate change, disease from concentration of livestock, and from walling ourselves off from the world. Iowa imports about 80% of its food while claiming to feed the world. Enjoy that Argentine porterhouse priced like it was of a quality grown in Sac County.
Another metric about Iowa’s dismal economy of late: Former state budget director Randy Bauer notes that only. West Virginia ranks worse in a Moody’s analysis of likelihood that a state is headed for recession. We rank near Mississippi on economic performance and net household income, at 49th. Every neighboring state outperforms us, even those high-tax villains Minnesota and Illinois.
Little wonder that the Morning Consult polls find Gov. Kim Reynolds as the most unpopular governor in the nation, consistently over the past few years. That fact probably contributed to her decision not to seek re-election.
Two of her biggest achievements have been to privatize Medicaid by having insurance companies administer it, and nearly eliminating the state income tax. The state is headed toward a $1 billion deficit that will require either revenue increases or big cuts to the budget. The biggest chunk of the budget is education.
None of this has helped Iowa’s economy broaden and diversify.
We could be content with meager means if the air and water were clean or if our schools were the best. They’re not. If you have to live with the smell and stupidity, at least you should get paid for it. We’re not.
As Iowa appears likely to sink into recession thanks to ag export loss and tariffs hobbling John Deere, with disinvestment in public support, we are in store for difficulty. We will be dealing with a state budget deficit precisely when the state should increase spending to ward off doldrums and provide a safety net.
Iowa has been heading the wrong direction for some time. The foolish economic agenda should motivate voters to change things in 2026 with the midterm elections.
NBC News found in a poll last week — just as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was spouting off to Congress — that 78% of those surveyed support the use of vaccines. Sixty-seven percent of Republicans do. This as Florida strikes vaccine mandates for school children and the federal government restricts Covid vaccines.
Logic suggests that if you support vaccines for humans, you would support their use in livestock (such as laying hens, swine and cattle) too.
President Trump said after the poll was released that he, too, thinks vaccines are useful. His own Operation Warp Speed during his first term was able to quickly deliver safe and effective Covid vaccines that prevented so many deaths. The president is letting Kennedy have his way by firing experts and placing vaccine deniers in key health positions. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is playing along on the vaccine charades by musing with Kennedy that allowing a virus to run through herds is the best way to build immunity. Trump cannot let this go on. They are way out of sync with the public who thought measles epidemics were history.
The same poll found Trump with a 43% overall approval rating, the same number that approved of his deportation policy. Not great. Fifty-six percent of independents ranged from dissatisfied to furious with Trump. The economy (particularly affordability) is the top issue for all poll respondents, followed by “threats to democracy” at 25% and 24% respectively.
Trump and his loony cronies are becoming a drag on the Republican brand. He should fire Kennedy. That would be a start. Then he should figure a fast retreat from his trade wars. The economy is heading into stagflation. MAGA is losing its appeal in Iowa, witness the swing election of Democrat Catelin Drey of Sioux City to the Iowa Senate. It’s not working. People like vaccines and think Kennedy is crazy. They’re nervous about deploying the military to big cities with a defense secretary looking through the bottom of a bottle. Poultry growers are not renewing contracts because of the devastation of disease, in the absence of vaccination.
Trump cannot gerrymander his way out of an imminent defeat next year in congressional elections. Ashley Hinson is positioning herself as a MAGA star in her race for the US Senate seat from Iowa. That might not be the right lane to choose.
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