Governor Branstad Stumps For Budget Support In Oskaloosa

Governor Branstad was in Oskaloosa on Thursday on one of 43 stops for his “Working Together for a Better Future” tour

Oskaloosa, Iowa- Governor Branstad brought his 43 city “Working Together for a Better Future” tour to Oskaloosa Thursday afternoon.

The 43 city tour, town hall style meeting was put together when the Governor cancelled his trip to South Korea and China in order to focus on the states budget. Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds took the Governors place in the joint state and business economic development mission.

“I believe that the first and foremost thing we need to do is to get Iowa’s finances back in order.” Branstad said about the lack of a budget so far for the state.

“You don’t want to use one time money for ongoing expenses, cause that will get you into trouble every time.” Branstad said of the previous administration’s use of bailout money to fund programs. “What happens when that money’s gone? That’s where we are right now.” he went on to say.

“We know where the Federal Government is, they’ve racked up 1.5 – 1.6 trillion dollar deficits the last 2 fiscal years, and they’re spending 40% more than they’re taking in. It’s not sustainable, if this continues we’ll become another Greece or Portugal.” Branstad said of federal spending, and how they would not be available to help bail out states that get themselves  into financial trouble. “But our responsibility’s at the state level, and I’m proud to say we’ve put together a bi-annual budget, 2 year budget we haven’t had in Iowa since ’83.” Branstad said of his proposed budget that is being debated in the legislature.

“As part of this budget, we have committed ourselves to reforming property tax, especially commercial property.” Branstad said that Iowa’s commercial property tax is among the highest in the country. He went on to explain that there would be a reimbursement for local governments that would be losing revenue due to the property tax changes. He explained that along with this would be residential and Ag property tax reforms.

“I believe this could be a critical turning point for our state’s future growth, and that’s why I’m asking you to [call] Senator Rielly (D) and other Democrats in the Senate to join with the Republicans and make sure that we get a sustainable budget that will spend only less than we take in each year in order to make sure we remain competitive for the long term.” Branstad said in his closing statement before turning the discussion over to questions from the group of more than 30, that had assembled in the meeting room at Smokey Row.

Osky News had an exclusive interview with Governor Branstad after his town hall meeting was finished.

Osky News speaks with Governor Branstad after his stop in Oskaloosa

I asked Governor Branstad, “How will you be able to continue to grow a strong economy when it looks like we’re facing a double dip recession and be able to present those jobs that were promised?”

Branstad responded, “The thing I’m encouraged about is agriculture is so strong in Iowa right now and I think the greatest opportunity for growth is bio-science jobs that are related to, and can do things from corn and soybeans. We’ve already made dramatic progress with renewable fuels, but now they’re looking at replacing petroleum based products with bio-based products. Also, the discovery of the human genome, there’s all kinds of new nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products being introduced to help address people with certain genetic characteristics, and we think Iowa’s a natural place for those businesses to start and to grow.”

I next went on to the current stalemate with Senate Democrats over the budget. I asked the Governor, “Do you think that the Senate Democrats are not compromising in order to try and make your administration look bad through all of this?”

“I really don’t know. I think they’re use to calling the shots when they had the Governorship and control of both houses of the legislature. Senator Gronstal (D) was able to basically do what he wanted to because Governor Culver (D) wasn’t that interest in policies, and the House just wasn’t as sophisticated as the Senate. But now he’s got a Republican Governor who has background and experience and has a definite agenda, and he’s got a Republican House, 60% majority there, he only has a bare 26% majority in the Senate. I think that circumstances have changed and it’s taken them a while to adjust to the fact that it’s a new reality.” Branstad said on what he feels is the relationship between Democrats and Republicans lately.

With Senator Gronstal (D) in mind, I posed the question: “If I was Senator Gronstal, what could you [Governor Branstad] say to convince me to compromise?”

“My staff has had many meetings with him, and they think they’ve made progress, and then he goes back and talks to his staff or to members of his caucus, and then he changes his tune. I think part of the problem is he’s lost control of his caucus. For one thing, and Senator Sandy Greiner pointed this out, many times he’s negating with his own caucus because he doesn’t have full agreement. He’s only got 26, and before he had 32, and so he’s got a much more difficult situation and obviously he doesn’t have the clout that he had before. I think it’s been a difficult adjustment. I’m hopeful that we will still see this get worked out; but it’s been a disappointment.” Branstad said of Senator Gronstal and the compromising process.

“What goals and plans for Iowa do you have beyond this budget?” was my next question for Governor Branstad.

“The focus is on jobs, reducing the tax and regulatory burden, and having this new partnership for economic progress [current trip to South Korea and China], so we can aggressively promote, to businesses throughout the world, the benefit of locating in Iowa. We think also because of the bio-sciences that we have a built-in advantage, because we raise the corn and soybeans here, to hopefully get many companies to locate here that will process that [product]. Already we got Cargill buying the Dayton Mile plant, and they are looking at a whole bio-sciences complex similar to what they’ve done in Eddyville. And you’ve seen what’s happening in Eddyville here; it’s phenomenal. They’ve done a similar thing in Blair, Nebraska. So we think that Fort Dodge can be another like them.” Branstad said of his plans beyond the budget debate this year.

My final question for the Governor was, “What is different about being Governor this time than your previous terms in office?”

“One thing that is different is social media. Every cell phone is a camera. You’ve got Twitter and Facebook and all of that sort of stuff. So there’s a lot more, and different, ways you need to communicate.” Branstad said of how social media has changed being Governor.