Nate Boulton

Iowa View contributor

Gov. Kim Reynolds recently had a message for Iowans: Ignore the news.

Forget the $100 million in recent forced budget cuts, the $131 million borrowed from "rainy day" funds, the additional $50 million she authorized to take from reserves, and the forecast that the state is likely still going to be short another $55 million this year.

In particular, forget the nearly $600 million in corporate tax credits, exemptions and giveaways that blew that gaping hole in the state budget in the first place.

Nothing to see here.

Around the same time as her press conference, I met with Iowans about the devastation being caused by these drastic cuts. The pain was written clearly on the faces of Iowa school teachers, public safety workers and health-care professionals. They’re seeing the vital services they provide being shortchanged and the people they seek to serve being left behind.

At its simplest, a budget is a moral document, a blueprint for building a successful state and a statement about our values as Iowans.

Right now, we are hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars in giveaways to corporate interests, many based outside of Iowa. Yet our investments in Iowa’s public education system, once a universal source of pride among Iowans, have lagged behind inflation for seven years running. This year, the state also cut funding to public universities and community colleges. Our public safety officers are forced to do more with less and often a mere four state troopers are on duty across our state each night. Despite the horrific news about the deaths of two abused girls in central Iowa this spring, Department of Human Services funding was cut. Medicaid recipients – the elderly, handicapped, mentally ill and working poor – are seeing their care jeopardized over a botched Medicaid privatization that’s failed to deliver on promised savings.

And even after Iowa voters overwhelmingly said yes to cleaning up our polluted waterways, Reynolds and the Republicans in the Legislature refused to address our poor water quality. They did, however, give $100 million to a foreign-owned fertilizer plant on Iowa soil.

That might be a statement about values, but those aren’t my values, and they’re not Iowa values.

Make no mistake, we all agree jobs are the priority. A thriving economy is our goal, but I couldn’t disagree more with the Reynolds plan.

I believe prosperity for Iowa requires a long-term plan. It means having the most educated, skilled and productive workers in the nation coming out of a robust education system. It means having an attractive quality of life from strong public safety and social programs that keep our communities safe and investments in programs to clean up our natural resources that will also result in job creation. Let’s respect our agricultural heritage and work to find new markets for ag products. Let’s double down on our leading role in the clean energy industry while also addressing the real problem of climate change. And yes, let’s limit our use of incentives in strategic ways to help Iowa businesses expand and attract new business into our state rather than blindly expanding and overextending our state resources to lure in low-wage and low-skill jobs.

We can’t expect to prosper if our state budget is a wreck and the leaders charged with managing it, especially Gov. Reynolds, either can’t or won’t admit it. We’re likely going to need a special session to address deepening problems and it will be a telling time for the future of our state. The governor can either heed the wake-up call and start working with all parties to fix our problems, or she can cement her legacy as someone more worried about ideology or politics.

While all is not well, I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of our state. But we deserve a state government to match that promise, not hold our state back. I look forward to vigorous debate this fall over the budget issues and throughout the upcoming campaign as we discuss the long-term future of our state.

NATE BOULTON is a state senator from Des Moines and a Democratic candidate for governor.