South Iowa News

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is accused of using nearly $450,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay the salaries of 21 staff members, according to an audit of the state’s payroll system released Monday.

State Auditor Rob Sand said the audit showed $448,448.86 was used over three months last year to pay the salaries, which came through the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Sand told The Associated Press he wrote to the governor’s office in October to inform her that paying staff salaries with federal money without proper documentation likely wouldn’t get federal approval, but he says he was ignored.

“What is not clear, is why these salaries were not included in the governor’s budget set prior to the fiscal year and prior to the pandemic,” he said in the audit report. “Based on this information, we conclude that the budget shortfall was not a result of the pandemic.”

Sand contacted the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and was initially given a spreadsheet listing the governor’s employees under a section labeled FY 2020 Shortfall and the amount of $448,448.86. A revised version was later sent to him in which the section title was changed to COVID-19 Personnel Costs with the same amount of money.

“That spreadsheet that shows they changed the headers to basically instead of say shortfall to say COVID-19 is a pretty big deal,” Sand told the AP.

Alex Murphy, Reynolds' communications director, said in a statement that the U.S. Treasury Department allows the use of coronavirus relief money to reimburse salaries for governors, according to AP. 

“During this time, the governor’s staff spent a vast majority of their time responding to the pandemic. In fact, many members of Gov. Reynolds’ staff worked seven days a week out of the State Emergency Operation Center to provide direct support to Iowans,” the statement said. “This has always been our justification for the expense. We are now working with Treasury to provide them documentation, per their request.”

Sand said Iowa might be required to repay the money to the federal government and become a stain on Reynolds term as governor.  

"Republican Governor of Iowa Kim Reynolds embezzled federal covid allocated funds for payroll to her 21 staff for 3 months. $7143/mo per staff. Is that right?" tweeted Twitter user K Sauza with salt. "I thought republicans were against socialism and government handouts?"