Speaker today was Director Debbi Durham, Director of Iowa Department of Economic Development. Governor Terry E. Branstad appointed Ms. Durham to her position in 2011. As one of her first orders of business, Debbi worked with the Governor and legislators to restructure the department to create a public-private partnership to update and improve Iowa’s delivery of economic development service.
In her role as a senior advisor to Governor Reynolds, Debbi plays an integral role in the Home Base Iowa initiative to place veterans in rewarding careers at Iowa employers. Also, under Director Durham’s leadership, efforts to expand Iowa’s apprenticeship programs – both providing Iowans with good paying career opportunities and Iowa businesses with the highly skilled employees they need to grow.
Ms. Durham sited Iowa’s recent rankings in U.S. News & World Report which evaluated all 50 states across 77 metrics with thousands of data points in eight categories: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability and quality of life. Health care and education are the most highly weighted factors in the methodology, followed closely by the economy.
- Iowa ranks 6th in Small State Main Street Entrepreneurship
- Iowa ranks #1 in High School and 3rd in 4-year college graduation rates
- Iowa ranks #1 in Infrastructure including internet and ultra-fast internet access
She emphasized the importance of financial incentives to companies looking to do business in Iowa. As she stated, it’s a competitive market, the businesses going to locate somewhere and it might as well be Iowa. She also discussed the process of evaluating the assistance packages against the return to Iowans and assured the group that in all cases, the assistance considered is in the best interest of Iowa. With regard to the Apple deal in Waukee, she said Tim Cook never comes to announcement events, but he did in this case because he was asked by her staff.
Mr. Cook said of Iowa,
“Across Iowa, businesses, schools, developers and government are coming together to build a new home for innovation in America’s heartland. We see that commitment in Iowa’s education system and in the value that you place on creativity, adaptability and new ways of thinking. At Apple, we admire what you guys have accomplished, and we want to be a part of it.”
She also talked about the jobs and capital investment that’s been made in Iowa since January 2011. Total Capital Investment, $15,949,385,958 and 59,289 direct and indirect jobs expected in Iowa economy. She discussed the importance of national issues, such as trade agreements, their use as diplomatic tools, and the impact on Iowa’s economic engine. The latest issues on tariffs could have a significant impact on Iowa’s agricultural industry as well as continued growth in industrial expansion. She and her staff monitor and advise the Governor on such issues, ensuring our State leadership is aware of the potential impact and continually advocating for Iowa’s economic growth.
Lastly, she shared the Projects Awarded by Community Size to demonstrate the disbursement across all community sizes:
- 79 projects in communities of 1-4,999 population
- 115 projects in communities of 5,000-24,999 population
- 128 projects in communities of 25,000-74,999 population
- 82 projects in communities greater than 75,000 population