Iowa's political primacy pays off in federal dollars and influence

Source: Boston Globe

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | November 25, 2007

WASHINGTON - Iowa, whose first-in-the-nation caucus is vital for politicians who want to be president, has reaped a windfall of federal spending in recent years, collecting billions of dollars in subsidies for ethanol production and a disproportionate share of federal funding, according to a review of government records.

Although it ranks 30th among the states in population, Iowa was slated to receive the seventh-highest amount of earmarked money - $37 million - in a congressional appropriations bill passed earlier this month. President Bush vetoed the bill on the grounds that it was filled with wasteful spending. Separately, Iowa has been awarded $50 million in taxpayer funds for a controversial project called Earthpark, an indoor rain forest to be constructed in the middle of the farm belt, contingent on collecting an identical amount in local funds.

Meanwhile, a new study on ethanol production by the Cato Institute says that Iowa gets a $2 billion benefit annually as a result of subsidies and trade barriers for the fuel, which is made from corn, Iowa's largest crop. Critics say the subsidies are wasteful be cause it takes too much energy to create ethanol and that there won't be enough of the gas substitute to reduce dependence on foreign oil. But most of the presidential candidates have pledged during their campaigns in Iowa that they will maintain and even increase the subsidies....

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Iowa's success in winning federal dollars is playing a role in decisions by other states to advance their own primaries, in some cases challenging Iowa's and New Hampshire's positions at the head of the pack. Some critics wonder whether Iowa's determination to hold the first caucus stems as much from a devotion to federal dollars as it does to the stated ideal of small-state retail politics. Now, other states want a piece of the power - and a bigger piece of the pie. Political leaders in Michigan, for instance, have scheduled an earlier primary, in part, to focus more attention on legislation affecting the auto industry....

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