DES MOINES – The Iowa Accountability Project, an effort by Progress Iowa to root out misuse of public money and corruption in our government, launched today with the filing of an Iowa Open Records Law request asking Governor Terry Branstad’s administration to release information about how its development of the “Gross over-the-month Employment Gains” statistic that it has added to in every month’s Iowa Workforce Development jobs report.
“Iowans deserve an honest picture of how our state’s economy is doing,” said Matt Sinovic, Executive Director of Progress Iowa. “We are concerned that the Branstad Administration is using taxpayer resources to develop flawed data that only serves as a re-election talking point.”
The new statistic was added to the monthly Iowa Workforce Development report in February of 2011, just after the Governor took office. The statistic only counts instances of new hires and therefore gives a distorted view of the state’s job picture. Commonly accepted measurements of job growth also include jobs lost, a figure not included in Gov. Branstad’s new metric.
In the 2010 campaign, Governor Branstad pledged he would create 200,000 new jobs. Data from Iowa Workforce Development shows that the state is far from reaching that goal, as unemployment in the state actually increased between June and July.
The public can view the Iowa Accountability Project’s request at its new website: www.accountabilityiowa.org. The site was developed to keep the public informed about the project’s activities.
Notice the announcement was made in the chambers of the County Supervisors. Exactly where they need to start looking!
Liberal folks trying to cut government waste?! What a joke!
More clap-trap from an organization in search of relevance. If Sinovic is in search of accountability I’d like to see his organization Progress Iowa move on to the national level and ask probing questions of the Obama administration. Will it happen – no, because they are in the same camp.
I agree that a junior high student would be a better candidate than you Peter. They have better ideas than just loud tailpipes. If you get more than 10-15 percent of the votes I would be shocked. Go back to living off the government and growing your garden. Im sure if I didn’t have to work I would be able to play around in the dirt like you.
Peter…. No one likes an asshole.
It’s a little late now isn’t it to be purveying the Clear Lake Budget? Where were you when the council held its public hearing on the budget? Where were you during the council workshops when they discussed the proposed budget? Its nice to be an armchair council person and telling us all what you are going to do once you are on the council, but so far, you are still Peter Citizen who most likely doesn’t even have a clue about most things concerning the city or its budget process.
Don’t waste your breathe Peter has no chance to win he should just bow out now and get a job
Tell them to come to Mason City. Lots to investigate here.
You took the words right out of our mouths, LVS.