Election 2012: Rogers, Greenwood Differ on Goals, Philosophy

Planning for the future is on the minds of both candidates for Iowa's House 60 seat, representing southwest Waterloo, Hudson and southern Cedar Falls. But their plans are very different.

Republican Rep. Walt Rogers thinks America is headed for even tougher financial times than the country currently faces.

"With what I call the federal fiscal cliff looming on the horizon, Iowa needs to be ready," he said. "I strongly believe we need to continue in that direction of not spending more than we take in… so that we are ready for anything that could happen down the road."

He said as the federal government looks to cut spending to reduce the national deficit, more costs will be passed to the states. Add the potential future costs of Medicaid and he thinks Iowa's expenses could grow greatly in the near future.

That means he's not in a big hurry to spend Iowa surplus - currently a record $688 million. In any event, he'd rather see the money returned to tax payers. He said how that might happen could be debated in the state legislature this year.

"A dollar in the hands of private citizens is more efficient than that same dollar in the hands of government," is one of his oft-repeated guiding phrases, along with his campaign slogan, "Smaller, smarter government."

Greenwood touts experience

His opponent Democrat Bob Greenwood counters that smarter doesn't always have to mean smaller.

He said he decided to challenge Roger's re-election after Rogers voted to close the University of Northern Iowa's Institute for Decision Making in 2011. (The Institute remains open.)

"I know the city of Waterloo has used them as a strategic planning service to help us. I know other cities, communities and businesses have used them," he said. "When Rep. Rogers said we could no longer fund it because we have to make tough decisions in life… Well, in tough economic times you don’t stop your economic development efforts."

Greenwood, who has served on the Waterloo City Council for 11 years, is a pharmacist and owns Greenwood Drug, Inc. in Waterloo. He said his experience in pharmacy and as a small business owner would serve him well in Des Moines.

"The health care exchanges are coming," he said, referring to health insurance reforms under Obamacare. "Navigating that as a state is something I think needs someone in health care that understands health insurance."

Priorities

Both candidates talked about property tax reforms - a popular theme for both Democrats and Republicans in Black Hawk County during this campaign.

Rogers, who was elected in 2010, said he would also like to address traffic light cameras again this year. He fought to ban the cameras in the legislature last year. He said the matter is one of personal liberty.

"I have a very high value on protecting, constitutionally, the values of freedom the founders of our country had," he said.

He said he also wants to continue to make government more transparent, and he cited an open records bill passed last year. Additionally, he said he wants to continue the fiscal policy pattern set during the last two years.

"We came in really in a place where, fiscally, Iowa was going in the wrong direction," he said. "Really in one year we turned that direction around and put Iowa in a much better direction."

Education

Greenwood said his priority is education.

"My primary goal is education," Greenwood said. "Not only for excellence in education, but UNI as an enterprise of the Cedar Valley. It has a big hand in economic development. It’s an economic driver in the community."

Rogers has "gotten hammered on education" - his own words - after a vote in the Iowa House last year for zero allowable growth in funding for UNI and other Regents institutions. Rogers said that vote has been misrepresented.

"What people don’t remember is the year before, Gov. Culver cut ten percent across the board," he said. "So we had to come in immediately and back fill $213 million in the education budget, which amounted to well over two percent allowable growth.

"I care very deeply about making sure our education is the best. It’s not that a Democrat cares more about it then I do," he said.

However, fears of future funding cuts for education are part of what got Greenwood into this race.

"I’ve always wanted to run, but the timing was never right," he said. "But with education cuts, I thought I could bring some sense to get something accomplished."