Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, the state’s lone statewide elected Democrat, said Wednesday he was pleased to hear Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ plan to look for ways to make government more efficient while touting his own office’s work to that end.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference his office called, Sand said government efficiency is important to him as state auditor and said he shares the goal with Reynolds, who during her annual Condition of the State address the night prior announced her plan to establish a government efficiency task force.
Sand said his office’s Public Innovations and Efficiencies program, which he calls PIE for shorthand, has been working since he was first elected in 2018 to help local government bodies become more efficient.
“The whole idea behind it is finding ways for cities, counties and school districts to help save taxpayer dollars. And that program has been working fantastically,” Sand said. “Of course we’re happy because we’re passionate about the issue. To hear Gov. Reynolds (Tuesday) night in her state of the state speech say that she, too, wants to work on government efficiency at the local level — great. That’s wonderful.”
Reynolds said her government efficiency task force will continue the work of legislation she proposed and signed into law in 2023 that streamlined the executive branch of state government. That law reduced the number of Cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16 and eliminated scores of vacant state government jobs.
Reynolds said her new task force will look for efficiencies at all levels of government, including local.
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Reynolds has said that her administration was doing DOGE before it was cool, referring to the federal Department of Government Efficiency that President-elect Donald Trump has planned to be led by Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk.
“We are hoping that (Reynolds’ task force) will be working with our office and working with the PIE program, because we have been working on this very issue already for six years. And not only are we working on it, but we’re actually making quite a big impact across the state.”
Reynolds has not yet said whether she will run for re-election in 2026. Sand has not ruled out running for governor.
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Speaking to reporters at a news conference his office called, Sand said government efficiency is important to him as state auditor and said he shares the goal with Reynolds, who during her annual Condition of the State address the night prior announced her plan to establish a government efficiency task force.
Sand said his office’s Public Innovations and Efficiencies program, which he calls PIE for shorthand, has been working since he was first elected in 2018 to help local government bodies become more efficient.
“The whole idea behind it is finding ways for cities, counties and school districts to help save taxpayer dollars. And that program has been working fantastically,” Sand said. “Of course we’re happy because we’re passionate about the issue. To hear Gov. Reynolds (Tuesday) night in her state of the state speech say that she, too, wants to work on government efficiency at the local level — great. That’s wonderful.”
Reynolds said her government efficiency task force will continue the work of legislation she proposed and signed into law in 2023 that streamlined the executive branch of state government. That law reduced the number of Cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16 and eliminated scores of vacant state government jobs.
Reynolds said her new task force will look for efficiencies at all levels of government, including local.
ADVERTISING
Reynolds has said that her administration was doing DOGE before it was cool, referring to the federal Department of Government Efficiency that President-elect Donald Trump has planned to be led by Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk.
“We are hoping that (Reynolds’ task force) will be working with our office and working with the PIE program, because we have been working on this very issue already for six years. And not only are we working on it, but we’re actually making quite a big impact across the state.”
Reynolds has not yet said whether she will run for re-election in 2026. Sand has not ruled out running for governor.
Capitol Notebook: Sand says he’s been doing ‘DOGE’ for years
Also, the state workforce agency announced details on new health care worker grants that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds highlighted in her Condition of the State address
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