The Ames Tribune – Branstad talks economy at Ames forum

Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad said he would do things for Iowa that will make a difference in the state economy when he spoke Friday at an Ames Chamber of Commerce candidate forum at Oakwood Road Church.

The former Iowa governor and Boone resident said he would eliminate the state Department of Economic Development, sunset all state regulations on business after four years, subject each new law to a “jobs impact statement” and roll back business property taxes.

But when Krell Institute’s Michelle King asked him how eliminating the Department of Economic Development would affect Iowa’s $6.4 billion, 65,000-employee tourism industry, the former governor said “(the IDED) Main Street (program) and the (Iowa Division of) Tourism are the best (economic development agencies) we have and should be enhanced and improved.”

That would happen by replacing the Department of Economic Development with a public-private state entity patterned after the Greater Des Moines Partnership or similar efforts in Sioux City and Dubuque, Branstad said.

Branstad said one thing he wouldn’t do is overspend the budget, something he said his opponent, Gov. Chet Culver, did do last year.

Before the 2009 Legislature adopted what Branstad said was its biggest budget in history, Culver “berated the Republicans and called them a bunch of naysayers.”

“Then came Oct. 8 (2009), and then, all of a sudden, he changed his tune and cut 10 percent across the board,” Branstad said.

The drastic rollback in spending caused “furloughs, layoffs and school district (shortfalls), and forced schools to use their cash reserves and increase property taxes” to replenish those funds, Branstad said.

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