Miranda Swapper, executive director of the Mississippi Valley Workforce Development Board, told the Scott County Board of Supervisors that recent and anticipated federal funding cuts make it difficult for local workforce boards to meet statutory responsibilities unless they pool administrative resources through mergers.

Miranda said their programs, funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), have already seen a roughly 16% cut in one funding stream and a 19% cut in another; she warned of a potential additional 25% reduction next year. She said a proposed merger of neighboring local workforce areas would allow the boards to maintain local control while consolidating administrative dollars.

Miranda described a past example in which four western Iowa local areas refused federal dollars and those areas reverted to state administration; she said local oversight in that example correlated with lower performance and fewer participants served. She told supervisors a formal CEO shared-liability agreement and state-board approval will be required and that the merger process needs 100% agreement among the affected counties’ boards to proceed.

County staff signaled they would place a simple resolution agreeing to pursue the merger on Thursday’s agenda and that, if the counties and the state board approve, the participating CEOs would then develop the shared-liability agreement and implementation details.

Supervisors expressed general support; Miranda said there would be no direct fiscal impact to the county budget from the merger and services would continue to be available locally at the IowaWORKS center in Scott County.