Democrats say change is needed for state to be great

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FRANKLIN - On the heels of the Lee County Republican annual banquet where area Republicans touted recent accolades dumped on the state by national media, local Democrats say things are far from perfect.

At Sunday's Cops and Calhoun Picnic in Franklin's town park, several Democratic legislators and current candidates said the state is far from heading in the right direction.

Jeff Kurtz, a candidate for state representative for the 83rd district, said when the state rolls back efforts to raise the minimum wage and in some cases even rolled back the minimum wage, it's hard to tout jobs success, especially when it comes to families being able to take care of themselves.

Lee County Republican Chair Martin Graber said at Saturday's republican event, that Kurtz didn't want to talk about jobs, because the state has the lowest unemployment rate in recent history. Kurtz is up against Keokuk Republican Jeff Reichman for the seat.

"We've been talking economic development this whole campaign. If you go to our Facebook page you can see from our forum in Keokuk, it was a lot of economic development. I'm not sure what candidate they're talking about, but we certainly are talking jobs."

"Iowa is a low wage state, no doubt about that," Kurtz said. "We increased (the minimum wage) to $8.20 and it lasted about two days before the Republicans put the preemptions clause in. I'm not sure why they think we're going to get prosperity when we've got all these low wage jobs. This isn't the way it works."

Fort Madison's Jeff Kurtz speaks with staff and members of the Lee County Democrats on Sunday at a picnic in Franklin. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Kurtz said the county and state need to continue to look at economic development. He said the county is well-positioned with Siemens, the railroads, Henniges, Griffin Wheel, and others and it needs to capitalize on the fact that climate change is here. Kurtz said he's also deeply concerned at the shuttering of the labor center at the University of Iowa.

"We've seen in the past two weeks the damage they've done at the University," he said. "I'm going to meet with the dean of the law school to try and get them to reverse their position on the labor center. That's only one part of the educational scheme they've really damaged. You have teachers that don't have a say in their jobs because how they've gutted Chapter 20. Those things we're going to feel for a long long time."

Jason Moats of Mt. Union is the Democratic challenger for the 84th district State Representative slot opposing Republican Joe Mitchell of Wayland. Moats ran unopposed in the June primary, while Mitchell beat a field of four with 38% of the vote. Moats is a former state correctional officer serving in Coralville and Mt. Pleasant.

Jason Moats said he decided to run after going to the Legislature in Des Moines as a representative with AFSCME and wanted to meet with leadership Republicans.

"Every year we go to the state capitol and a year ago in March we went up and the Republicans knew we were coming and they all went to lunch," he said. "They didn't want to talk to us. These are the folks that you and I elect to work for us. When they decided to leave, that kind of upset me. I told my wife I think I could do a better job and she agreed. She pushed me into running and September we announced publicly that we were running."

Moats said the state has a long way to go in repairing what's been done over the past few years to education and mental health in the state.

"Education is big one to me," Moats said. "Our children are going to be the ones in the futre that will be running this state and country so why not give them the best education possible? We used to rank right up there close to No. 1 in the country and we've fallen behind in education."

He said the cuts that the Republican leadership made last year has hurt districts across the state and the push for technology is good, but students are being left behind in the soft skills and social skills.

"Every day it's in the news that these kids are losing social skills. When they get older and go to get a job, they don't have the social skills. How are they going to get jobs?"

He also said Iowa's in a state of crisis when it comes to mental health care.

"Time is a crucial thing for someone in a mental crisis and to have to drive two hours away and back....and then factor in they don't have a way to fund that program... that just doesn't make any sense at all. We have to do better and we have to do more to help those people," he said.

Retiring State Rep. Jerry Kearns said some good things are happening in the state, but he doesn't necessariliy think the state's in great shape.

"I don't think we're necessarily in great shape. We had to a lot of adjusting to the budget and a lot of things that should be funded like education, are really taking it in the hind end," Kearns said.

He also said Iowa's mental health care is ranked low in the country and privatizing medicaid is not proving to be the great idea Republicans thought it was.

"We lost insurers because they can't make it, we were supposed to save money and we haven't, although they'll claim we have. There are some good things no doubt about it, but what we've done is follow the national trend. We haven't followed through with good financial integrity and our state financially, regardless, of what Republicans say, is not that great."

He said the rollback of local efforts to raise minimum wages has had the biggest impact on jobs in the area.

"A lot of our jobs are minimum wage, our rate is low," Kearns said. "You can get by, work extra hours, both spouses can work and get by. Unfortunately we decided to take away the right of counties and municipalities to raise the wage. Lee County was in the process but the Republicans came in and said you can't do that and we're at the federal minimum. That doesn't make sense."

State Sen. Rich Taylor said it's tough for him to see the state as the top ranked in the country,

If they think that Medicare and Medicaid not working for the people of this state makes us the greatest in the nation... ok," Taylor said.

Taylor said the state is now giving away $600 million a year in corporate tax breaks compared to $200 milliion when he took office.

"When you look at the money we give to corporations who don't need it and then you look at where we're at on wages, health care, mental health, education. How they get that we're the No. 1 state, I just don't get it."

Taylor said Gov. Reynolds' rural empowerment initiative is campaigning as is the talk of the unfunded regionalized mental health efforts.

"It's like promising your kid a pony for their birthday but you can't afford the pony. The kid wakes up in the morning and there's no pony," Taylor said.

Cops and Calhoun, Democrats, elections, Franklin, lee county, Pen City Current, platforms, primary

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