As the race for Iowa governor heads into the home stretch, Republican Terry Branstad and Democratic Gov. Chet Culver spend plenty of time talking about their plans for boosting the economy in a state that has lost more than 53,000 jobs since 2008.
The problem, though, is experts say governors have limited power to create jobs.
"In a tough economy, there is precious little a governor, or anybody, can do to stem the decline or to create jobs," said David Swenson, an economics professor at Iowa State University. "In and of themselves, elected officials don't directly create jobs."
Swenson said politicians frequently overstate the power they have. He likened governors to being head cheerleaders for a state.
"While they like to take credit for it, it's market activity, the overall regional and national economic activity that generates job growth," Swenson said.
More than 1.55 million people were employed in Iowa in August, according to Iowa Workforce Development. That is down from about 1.61 million in March 2008. More than half of the jobs that were lost were in manufacturing, followed by construction jobs.
Culver, who is seeking a second-term as governor, has promoted the I-JOBS program passed by the Legislature in 2009 as a major job creator, pointing to an Iowa Department of Management study that found it created or retained more than 7,500 jobs through July. The $875 million program, funded by state gaming revenue, was created to help the state recover from record flooding in 2008 and invest in the state's infrastructure.
Branstad, who served four terms as governor before leaving office in 1998, has proposed reducing commercial property taxes and cutting the state's corporate income tax rates in half. Branstad also has called for expanding the state's exports by 20 percent over the next five years, a move he claims would create 13,000 new jobs.
He wants to open a South Korean trade office to increase interaction between Iowa and that country.
Branstad said he'd announce another jobs plan on Monday.
Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said job creation is the most important issue of the campaign. He argued that governors can influence policies that can lead to job growth.
"The governor has a big role in looking at the regulations or any legislation that will hinder or enhance job growth," Albrecht said. "You either have a governor who is willing to call on businesses and travel and recruit or you do not."
Culver campaign spokesman Donn Stanley said while governor's don't directly create jobs, policies they push can "create the conditions for long-term economic growth."
"It's not creating jobs themselves but creating the environment to have economic renewal," Stanley said.
He acknowledged that 30-second television adds about job creation can be confusing.
"Everything gets condensed," Stanley said.
Peter Fisher, research director of the liberal Iowa City-based research organization Iowa Policy Project, said state government's role in job creation revolves primarily around education and infrastructure.
"If we focus too much on the short-term view of job creation and oversell it, we end up spending money in ways that aren't very effective instead of spending it on the basic responsibilities of government that can have an impact the economy," Fisher said.
Fisher said by creating jobs through improving the state's infrastructure and building roads, "you see the cause and effect.
"There's no argument you have to hire people to build roads," he said.
Fisher said it's more difficult to gauge the success of job creation programs linked to tax incentives.
"It's much less clear, the result, because you never know how many instances did that tax credit made a difference," Fisher said. "Most of the time you give tax breaks to companies that would have done the same thing without the tax break."
