DES MOINES, Iowa — Back in February of this year, Governor Kim Reynolds authorized a state DOGE task force to create suggestions on how to reduce government waste.

On Tuesday morning, Governor Reynolds along with Emily Schmitt, the chair of the task force and the Chief Administrative Officer at Sukup Manufacturing, answered questions about the final report.

“Iowa is about a $20 billion enterprise with 18,000 employees, critical infrastructure and operations and a wide reaching scope of responsibility,” said Reynolds. “And taxpayers, quite frankly, expect it to run like a business and it should.”

Reynolds’ work to streamline state government has gone back several years, most notably combining 37 cabinet-level state agencies down to 16. Reynolds emphasized that the task force is a continuation of that, calling it her realignment 4.0.

“So do not look at each of these as a vacuum,” said Schmitt. “I encourage elected officials to really read the report in the mindset of the task force that was given by the Governor. It was applying business minded efficiencies to the government and how that would look.”

A lot of discussion around the task force revolved around comments made on the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS). In a meeting back in September Terry Lutz, a committee member and the chair of McClure Engineering, made comments about the state conducting an annual study on public employee compensation and benefits. The study would weigh that data against private-sector standards.

The final report outlines that recommendation, and in the implementation portion it reads, “Preserve all pension and benefit commitments made to existing employees. Any new defined-contribution retirement option should be strictly voluntary for current staff and structured to protect the solvency of the traditional pension system.”

Governor Reynolds maintained her commitment to no changes happening to IPERS, and she furthered that again today.

“IPERS isn’t going anywhere. There’s been a lot of public speculation, not to mention misinformation, about the potential changes to benefits that state employees, a lot of law enforcement officers, teachers and others rely on. And you can rest assured that IPERS will be there for your retirement. Just as you’ve planned and we’ve promised, and that by the way was the intent of the task force from the very beginning,” said Reynolds.

There is also a pay for performance recommendation that is outlined in the report as well. That has been met with critics as that recommendation was being developed during the task force.

The total report has 45 recommendations that are detailed with implementation recommendations to go along with it. The main take aways were broken down into three groups for the task force to examine.

The workforce improvement includes: support partnerships at the community level that make work-based learning more accessible, earlier in a student’s journey; create flexibility in program delivery using virtual, mobile, hybrid, short-form and other nontraditional training modes; and others are including in the bigger picture.

Leveraging technology included: improving user experience within government services online; free up time for higher-value tasks and improve quality of service for state processes by using AI and consolidating technology platforms; removing outdated legal requirements like certified mail and ink signatures; and more.

Return on taxpayer investment recommends the merit-based compensation framework; STEM proficiency for students and workforce readiness to prepare for postsecondary education and careers; expanding regional shared service models across school districts to reduce administrative overhead; create a local government option called “Independent Cities” for municipalities with 50,000 or more residence to increase government efficiency, reduce property taxes by eliminating overlap between county and city governments.

Reynolds said that a culmination of these recommendations may be the best way to address high property tax rates.

“So at the end of the day, the only way I think we can really reduce the property tax burden is to maybe find new ways and maybe find better and more efficient ways for the government, and all levels, to deliver services to our citizens. And that’s the conversation I am having with Iowans now,” said Reynolds.

Lawmakers will now spend the next several months before the session examining the report and deciding what recommendations are worth implementing into law.

You can view the full report below.