A state audit in Iowa has found millions of dollars’ worth of state grants and loans to businesses that promised to build or expand operations in Iowa have so far yielded a fraction of the jobs that were promised.
The audit covered an 11-year period. State officials signed almost a thousand contracts with businesses, awarding nearly 310-MILLION dollars to companies during that time frame. The businesses promised to create or retain more than 57-thousand jobs in return. The audit found about 80 percent of the promised jobs have not materialized yet. State Auditor Mary Mosiman
A spokeswoman for the Iowa Economic Development Authority says the audit includes the years of “the great recession” and the administrations of three different governors and six agency directors. The audit is a follow-up to a 2007 audit evaluating state economic incentive programs.
Mosiman says policymakers — not auditors like her — are the ones who’ll decide whether these economic incentive programs are effective.
The spokeswoman for the Iowa Economic Development Authority says her agency is constantly looking for ways to make state incentive programs more effective. And she notes the agency recently has been using state tax credits more often as part of its incentive portfolio.
