A light rain had just stopped when I saw my friend K.C. at the corner of 37th Street and Grand Avenue. 

“Isn’t it terrible what’s happening to Mount Pleasant?” I said. 

“You mean closing Iowa Wesleyan University,” he replied, “a school that’s older than the state of Iowa, because Gov. Kim Reynolds won’t give them $12 million of federal COVID money when  billions were spent to keep private businesses afloat.”

“Yes,” I said. “It was so sudden. It seems like there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

“Could be,” he said, nodding. “But you have to understand there were a lot of reasons for closing it, including the fact that the school didn’t have the best financial track record.”

“That may be,” I said, “but Wesleyan was Iowa’s first coeducational college and produced several notable women, including the first female lawyer in the country and the first woman elected to the Iowa Legislature.

“Admittedly, it was in financial trouble,” I said. “But news stories implied they were making progress. Shouldn’t they have been given a chance? Is closing it really in the best interest of Iowa?

“Besides,” I continued, “it will probably cost at least $12 million in unemployment services, economic development grants, lost taxes and lost opportunities once the school is closed. And that’s hard-earned Iowa tax dollars, not federal pandemic money.”

“That’s true,” K.C. said, adding: “You don’t have to look far to find recent examples of government waste. Just look at the recent effort by Reynolds to get information technology systems onto the cloud. 

“I’m not sure what the out-of-pocket cost is, but the state recently canceled a 3-year-old, no-bid contract for more than $20 million because the project was messed up and didn’t do what it was supposed to do.

“Then there’s the effort to revive Honey Creek, the state-owned resort on Rathbun Lake,” he added, referring to the Appanoose County project operated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“That project has already cost taxpayers more than $30 million and never lived up to expectations,” K.C. said. “The DNR just gave a new management contract to a couple who have big plans and no experience running resorts. I doubt that will end well.

“Don’t get me started on the cost overruns at the Children’s Hospital in Iowa City,” he said before pausing. 

“I suspect,” he continued, “that denying Iowa Wesleyan’s request for $12 million of federal pandemic money is payback.” 

“How does that work?” I asked. “Payback for what?

“For launching the political career of Tom Vilsack. Right now, he’s pretty much the last Democrat in Iowa with any real power. He’s not only a former governor of Iowa, he’s the U.S. secretary of agriculture, a position that he held during the Obama administration and again under President Biden.

“Do you know how rare that is and how much power goes with that office, especially in farm states like Iowa? His USDA budget is 30 times the size of Iowa’s state budget.” 

“But Mount Pleasant?” I said.

“Mount Pleasant is Vilsack’s soft spot,” K.C. answered. “It’s where his wife grew up. It’s where he practiced law. It’s where he launched his political career after a crazy man shot the mayor and two City Council members in 1986. The mayor died and Vilsack was elected to replace him. Then, Mount Pleasant sent him to the Legislature, and he ran for governor in 1998 and won.

“Iowa Wesleyan is the perfect way to get back at him. His Department of Agriculture loaned the school $26 million in 2016, which it has not paid back, and Vilsack’s wife is on the school’s board of directors.

“Reynolds can say she is taking the fiscally responsible high road and hit Vilsack in his hometown. And there’s nothing he can do about it.

“The interesting question now is how will she handle similar requests for assistance from three other small rural schools, including Upper Iowa, which she attended. 

“But I’m sure she’ll find a way around that,” K.C. said as he walked off.