Iowa needs a worker-friendly governor

Remember when Terry Branstad and Kim Reynolds campaigned on creating 200,000 new jobs and raising family income by 25 percent in five years?

They have failed to fulfill those promises and, in fact, have taken away thousands of jobs from important public services like public safety, human services, natural resources and veterans’ services.

According to the Legislative Services Agency, Iowans have lost these positions since 2010:

• 1,200 jobs from human services

• 380 jobs from corrections

• 122 jobs from public safety

• 73 jobs from natural resources

• 97 jobs from veterans’ affairs and the Iowa Veterans Home

These were real jobs taken from real people who were working for us — taking care of our veterans and our most vulnerable, protecting our environment and keeping our prisoners and our communities safe.

We know that under Gov. Chet Culver we also lost some positions, but that was because of a global recession that started under President Bush that took away revenue from our state. Since 2010 we should have been restoring at least some of these positions, not taking more away.

Gov. Reynolds and Republican legislators are planning tax cuts and budget cuts that will exacerbate the problem. We hope that Iowans will support public service workers in November by rejecting Gov. Reynolds and will instead elect a job-creating, worker-friendly governor and legislature.

Bill and Kathy Kilbourn

Cedar Rapids