Finances
The Iowa legislature reconvenes Wednesday and the major topic of business will be approving a budget for the fiscal year beginning one month from today.
A survey by the personal finance website Wallet Hub suggests that while many states and cities are begging for government assistance in light of the pandemic, Iowa is in pretty good shape.
They surveyed all 50 states by using 18 metrics, to identify which states may need the most financial help…and Iowa is the #1 state that needs the least financial help according to the survey.
The individual metrics are scored based on need, so the closer you are to 50 the better, as opposed to being in the top ten.
Iowa ranks 33rd in state rainy-day funds per capita, and 40th in terms of state and local debt per capita; again, you want as high a number out of 50 as possible. A key difference between Iowa and other states, unfunded pension liabilities, and there we rank 35th. Other states made overly generous deals with unions, without the on-going revenue to back it up.
Despite our huge spike in jobless claims, we’re 37th in terms of claims increase since COVID-19 began, and because so many of our workers stayed on the job due to food supply chain needs, we’re 48th out of 50 in how our GDP was affected. Because of keeping a healthy reserve, we’re 41st in preparedness for a severe recession.
So things aren’t great, to be sure…but apparently as a state, Iowa is better off than everyone else in the country looking to Washington, D.C. for help.
