Oct 5, 2026 · 8 min · 4 segments
E.J Antoni, Chief Economist for the Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, on the broad economic impact of the Mesabi Metallics steel plant proposed for southeast Iowa.
Jeff SteinHostLook, it, it's not just a matter of you're going to employ people at the actual plant.
Of course that's the case, but you're also going to create additional jobs because of that.
If, if you are somebody who works at that steel plant, don't you need somewhere to live? Don't you need somebody to build your house or your apartment? Don't you need to buy groceries? You, you need somebody to be working at and running a, a nearby grocery store.
I mean, it really is amazing how just adding a single major industry like that can benefit the broader local economy in a lot of different ways.
So it, it's not just a matter, again, of, all right, it's going to employ a few hundred or even over 1,000 folks.
There are a lot of y- what you might call, uh, spillover effects that are very, very beneficial to the local economy as well.
And, and another big thing to remember, I think, is the fact that a, a business like this move in, it generates tax revenue as well.
Again, it's not just a matter of the people there who are employed, and they spend money.
Now, trust me, I'm a huge advocate for lower taxation, but the fact is more economic activity will bring in more tax revenue.
A- and this is the same thing that we see actually with, uh, with data centers, where data centers bring so much tax revenue to the local area that local governments oftentimes are able to reduce tax rates on things like property taxes, res- residential property taxes, because they have so much revenue coming in from another source, in this case it would be a steel mill, that you don't need as much revenue from other sources.
And that plays into how Iowa has conducted its business over the course of the last few years to where we had built such a surplus, we not only could drop the individual income tax rate down to a flat rate, but we met the target years ahead of time and still have a surplus.
I mean, look, as long as you can keep a lid on the growth of government spending, the exact opposite of what happens here in Washington, DC, basically, as long as you can prevent government spending from growing out of control, healthy economic growth will of course cause revenue to the government, those tax receipts, to outpace any kind of moderate spending growth.
And that means you will eventually move out of deficit into surplus like you're talking about.
And, and that's great for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that as a government's credit rating improves, as it spends less and less on a smaller and smaller debt, it needs to collect even less tax revenue from the people, and thereby reduce the tax burden on families.
Look, it, it's not just a matter of you're going to employ people at the actual plant.
Of course that's the case, but you're also going to create additional jobs because of that.
If, if you are somebody who works at that steel plant, don't you need somewhere to live? Don't you need somebody to build your house or your apartment? Don't you need to buy groceries? You, you need somebody to be working at and running a, a nearby grocery store.
I mean, it really is amazing how just adding a single major industry like that can benefit the broader local economy in a lot of different ways.
So it, it's not just a matter, again, of, all right, it's going to employ a few hundred or even over 1,000 folks.
There are a lot of y- what you might call, uh, spillover effects that are very, very beneficial to the local economy as well.
And, and another big thing to remember, I think, is the fact that a, a business like this move in, it generates tax revenue as well.
Again, it's not just a matter of the people there who are employed, and they spend money.
Now, trust me, I'm a huge advocate for lower taxation, but the fact is more economic activity will bring in more tax revenue.
A- and this is the same thing that we see actually with, uh, with data centers, where data centers bring so much tax revenue to the local area that local governments oftentimes are able to reduce tax rates on things like property taxes, res- residential property taxes, because they have so much revenue coming in from another source, in this case it would be a steel mill, that you don't need as much revenue from other sources.
And that plays into how Iowa has conducted its business over the course of the last few years to where we had built such a surplus, we not only could drop the individual income tax rate down to a flat rate, but we met the target years ahead of time and still have a surplus.
I mean, look, as long as you can keep a lid on the growth of government spending, the exact opposite of what happens here in Washington, DC, basically, as long as you can prevent government spending from growing out of control, healthy economic growth will of course cause revenue to the government, those tax receipts, to outpace any kind of moderate spending growth.
And that means you will eventually move out of deficit into surplus like you're talking about.
And, and that's great for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that as a government's credit rating improves, as it spends less and less on a smaller and smaller debt, it needs to collect even less tax revenue from the people, and thereby reduce the tax burden on families.
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