Rebuild Iowa Office Expenses Questioned

The House Rebuild Iowa Committee met on Wednesday this week. Legislators vigorously questioned Rebuild Iowa Office (RIO) executives about seemingly out-of-place expenditures including $19,000 on re-carpeting the office space and $425,000 dollars on lobbying and media personnel.

RIO was established by Governor Culver through an Executive Order to coordinate state-wide efforts to aid in recovery after the onslaught of natural disasters last summer.

On Monday, Governor Culver signed the Rebuild Iowa Bill into law after receiving unanimous votes in the House and Senate. House File 64 allocates $56 million from the state’s rainy day funds to disaster recovery efforts:

• $24 million will go to the Jumpstart Housing Assistance Program
• $22 million for grants to cities and counties for expenses including repairing and rebuilding public infrastructure, and public purchase of land and structures
• $10 million for individual disaster relief grants to be dispersed through the Department of Human Services

Governor Culver has also signed SF 44 which aids cities in federally declared disaster counties to impose a vote for a local option sales tax to raise funds for disaster recovery.

On a different note, on Friday the 3M plan in Ames announced it would be reducing work hours for most of its 350 employees as a result of the nation’s economic woes.