October 07, 2009
Notes from the Road
Tonight I reached the final day of my seventeen city tour. Small groups, with the completely unpredictable questions that come from individuals, are a wonderful part of an active campaign. It is grassroots at its best. Public sector leaders joined in - state legislators, past mayors, county supervisors, school district superintendents. Community leaders came – county GOP central committee, TEA party members and pastors. And hundreds of regular, hard-working Iowans, all concerned with the direction of Iowa and our state government.
To those that came: Thank you. Thank you for caring enough to take a valuable hour to join a discussion about the future of Iowa, and to hear my vision of where we can go together. Thank you for spreading the word about my candidacy. I saw several emails that went from one person to another, forwarded on until they reached my campaign staff, who then passed them to me. I’m excited about how many signed up to support the campaign in various ways, often with sacrificial gifts of time and money.
Most common question? How are you really going to reduce the state budget and avoid a deficit? Answer: Hire only agency heads that can deliver a 5% cut in their agencies’ budget. Then pursue savings in functions that cross agencies – things like IT, vehicle fleet management and employee costs – that can deliver more savings. Finally, we must begin doing what in business we call “zero-based budgeting.” In essence, we take every program and say, “Can we afford this program this year? Are taxpayers getting their money’s worth?” If the answer is no to either question: cut, retool or shrink the program. By doing all three steps, we can get the budget under control.
What stumped me? What to do about too many mosquitoes in Iowa. Maybe a naturalist can give me a good answer, but I’m afraid all I can do is reach for a bottle of “OFF” and start spraying!
Long hours, small town hotels and lots of pizza filled the tour. Thanks to my wonderful staff, Bobby Kaufmann and Marlys Popma, who do the bulk of the work to set up the events, and then joined me at each of them. Get some sleep, Bobby and Marlys, because no doubt we are going to be doing it again!
