DES MOINES, Iowa — After months of researching and meetings, the Iowa DOGE task force has 45 new recommendations they believe will make Iowa’s government more efficient.
The task force has been broken up into three groups focusing on workforce improvement, technology and the state’s return on investment (ROI).
Most of their recommendations are dealing with consolidating or streamlining state, county and city services.
“We’ve all heard stories of citizens frustrated by long forms, confusing websites or having to call multiple offices to get an answer,” Kathy Kay, a member of the task force and part of Principal Financial Group, said.
Now, they’ve proposed one online portal for Iowans to access state services.
“So, that whether you’re renewing a license, paying a fee or registering to vote, you have one account and one place to go,” Kay said.
Members claim Iowa’s education funding model isn’t working. They said the state’s paying more per student than the nation’s median but isn’t seeing high student achievement.
“Our current system rewards teachers and administrators for their length of service and duties they take on with no ties to student achievements,” Terry Lutz, a member of the task force and part of McClure Engineering, said.
They’re planning to recommend the state implement a ‘pay for performance’ system.
“Tying teacher and administrative compensation incentives to student outcomes,” Lutz said.
There wasn’t any mention of consolidating Iowa’s 99 counties. Instead, they focused on allowing counties and cities to share services and offering incentives for them to do it.
“Sharing services can help address staff shortages and rural areas and reduce the burden on small counties that struggle to maintain complex administrative systems on their own,” Lutz said.
They also suggest the state is paying way more than private companies are for benefits and retirement contributions. They recommend the state switches from Iowa’s retirement plan, IPERS, and to a defined contribution plan like a 401k.
“Our recommendation is to complete a compensation in benefit study to align state employee compensation more closely with the private sector,” Lutz said. “To implement this change, it could potentially only impact new employees hired as of a certain date.”
They said their plan would be that a switch in retirement plan would only be for new employees, not those who have been paying into the system and relying on those funds.
The task force will meet again to finalize their recommendations before sending the report to Governor Kim Reynolds on Sept. 29.