Controversial bills affecting Iowa's image, hurting business and workforce recruitment, leaders say

[SharonClark]

The farmers and evangelicals don't care because they'll still get their welfare from Grassley and Ernst.

Several bills circulating through the Legislature this year may be damaging Iowa’s brand and hindering the state’s goal of attracting and retaining top talent, some business leaders say.

In some cases, those bills have caused companies to cross Iowa off their list of places they were considering.

Bills such as those that would require transgender people to use restrooms of their assigned sex at birth in schools and those that would ban tenure at the state regents’ universities, are damaging Iowa’s reputation on the national and world stage, the leaders said.

Even if the bills don’t become law, they’re sending a message that Iowa is not a welcoming state, said Geoff Wood, founder of Gravitate Coworking, who raised his concerns during Wednesday’s Capital Crossroads meeting and discussed them further with the Business Record.
. . .
During the Capital Crossroads meeting, Wood said the issue of Iowa’s brand is “really being felt in the entrepreneurial community based on what’s happening in the Legislature.”

“People are rethinking about coming to Iowa because of the brand they see with our state,” Wood said. “We may know a lot of these things won’t actually become law, but they’re one step from becoming law and maybe next session they will, so people are thinking those through.”

Rick Sanders, president and director of the Iowa State University Research Park, said during Wednesday’s meeting that ISU was in competition with Purdue and the University of Illinois on three different projects with companies that are considering moving innovation centers to one of the institutions.

“Three weeks ago we felt we were right there; now all three have dropped us … and two of them were bold enough to tell us one of the primary reasons they dropped us is what’s going on at the Capitol right now,” Sanders said.
. . .

Article at: https://businessrecord.com/Content/Default/All-Latest-News/Article/Controversial-bills-affecting-Iowa-s-image-hurting-business-and-workforce-recruitment-leaders-say/-3/248/92678?fbclid=IwAR1kptBPZkiikssfbN0bbA6Jk07mFj2beO1ae_UjppwXoVyhwIHl6X_FKZY

[Thekaspervote]

1. Some of the bills in their state legislature are disgusting!!

[dalton99a]

2. The Neanderthals are doing incredible damage to Iowa's progressive history

[bullwinkle428]

3. I've lived and worked here for 33 years, but if I'm still here when I decide

to retire, I'm totally looking at multiple possibilities across the U.S. that are not dominated by crazy wingnuts in positions of power.

[rurallib]

6. I think the wing nuts are less of a problem than the bulk of the population

that just goes along with whatever Republicans decide to do.

In Iowa our populace is conditioned by the media which is nearly 100% RW day and night.

[rurallib]

4. Steve King is finally gone. But the legislature has taken up the mantle of stupidity that it

carried so proudly in the 60s and 70s. Our whole purpose these days seems to be to become the Mississippi of the North. That tenure bill alone, whether it passes or not, should spiral Iowa's once great university system down to community college status in no time.

And just because King is gone doesn't mean that Iowa doesn't have more than its share of gawd-awful politicians. Because of his age and seniority, nearly every bill in the senate gives observers a chance to mock Grassley and Iowa. Joni Ernst is well-known as the most spineless of the almost totally spineless Republican Party.

And Covid Kim (Reynolds - Iowa's entry into the country's worst governor contest) is getting her own kind of special praise from the virus community across the country as she does nothing to stop the pandemic.

[gratuitous]

5. This would seem to be an issue Democrats could use against Republicans

Republican bigoted policies aren't good for business, or labor, or farmers.

[Victor_c3]

7. ... and enough people clearly agree with their government representatives to keep them in power

I feel bad for the people that don’t vote for this nonsense, but obviously that’s not how the majority of the state thinks (or at least the majority in certain gerrymandered districts).