Waukee Legislative Breakfast Brings Together Local Leaders

The Waukee Area Chamber of Commerce. along with the West Des Moines, Clive and Windsor Heights Chambers of Commerce, hosted the West Side Legislative Breakfast at the Village of Legacy Pointe Thursday morning.

The event brought together five legislators who serve the western parts of both Polk and Dallas counties, among others. State representatives Peter Cownie, Chris Hagenow and Ralph Watts joined State Senate minority leader Jerry Behn and State Senator Pat Ward at the breakfast to discuss issues facing legislators in the upcoming session.

Cownie, who serves the Polk County section of West Des Moines, said the budget, education reform and property taxes will be three issues with high priority this session. 

Hagenow assured breakfast attendees that legislators would work hard to find ways to better balance the state's budget this session.

"We are going to have the same focus that we did last year and that's that we are not going to spend any more money than we collect in state revenue," he said.

Watts said lawmakers hope this year's session will be shorter than the last.

"It took us 180 days to convince the holdouts in the Senate that we weren't going to go there," Watts said.

Ward, whose district was recently reorganized to include the Waukee area and drops part of West Des Moines, said she will run for re-election despite the change. Republican Jeff Mullen from Waukee's Point of Grace Church and Democrat Desmund Adams, an attorney from Clive, have both thrown their hats in the ring, running for the same district 22 senate seat Ward currently occupies.

"I'm very optimistic about Iowa," said Ward. "It's a great place to live, a great place to build communities. We have hard-working, committed people here working together — I'm confident we still have our best years in front of us."