Fong focuses on ?economic growth, taxes

Nov 13, 2009 — Creston News Advertiser

Tyler Ellyson

Nov. 13, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Christian Fong will have to overcome steep odds if he plans to take over the governor's office next year.

The 32-year-old executive at Cedar Rapids-based insurance company AEGON (NYSE:AEG) is Iowa's youngest Republican candidate for governor -- a candidate who has also never held a public office.

He may be considered an outside contender to candidates like Bob Vander Plaats, Christopher Rants or possibly former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, but Fong's personality led him to fast-track his career in politics.

"When I see a problem, I try to solve it," Fong said in a Creston News Advertiser interview. "I've always done that."

The son of a Chinese immigrant father and one of eight children in his family, Fong graduated high school when he was 16 and later added degrees from Creighton University and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Despite having multiple job offers after receiving his masters in business administration, Fong returned to his home state because he "believes Iowa will be the next economic engine."

"I wanted to be there, I wanted to help lead that," said Fong. "I have this intense optimism about the future of Iowa, but it will take strong leadership to get there."

Fong said his work while leading flood-recovery efforts in Cedar Rapids showed him how "off track (Iowa's) economic system was and how dysfunctional the government is."

This prompted Fong to throw his hat in the gubernatorial ring.

During a stop in Creston for a Union County Republicans dinner, the pro-life and traditional marriage advocate took time to address southwest Iowa issues.

Schools

A graduate of Underwood High School in southwest Iowa, Fong has first-hand knowledge of the importance of smaller, rural schools.

"I know the strength of a small school and its ability to customize an education for kids," he said. "We're not a factory, we're not running an assembly line. We still need to educate individual kids."

Fong said smaller schools often have higher test scores, and can survive during these tough economic times without mandatory consolidation.

"It absolutely is financially feasible," Fong explained. "Simply consolidating schools to save money is a simple and a lazy and a bad answer."

While he says some schools may choose to consolidate in an effort to better students' education, Fong believes modern technology and the sharing of teachers and administrators can help curb a lack of resources in some districts.

But, Fong said communities should not abstain from consolidating simply because they feel a school is needed there. If educational reasons, not state cost-saving measures, warrant the move, it should be done.

"The drive to consolidate schools is simply a function of people trying to save money, not educate kids," said Fong. "As long as our education system is oriented toward the money, we'll have a broken education system."

Taxes

Fong's message is simple when it comes to property taxes.

"Gov. Culver is breaking his promise to Iowans not to raise taxes by shifting the burden and the hard decisions to the local level," he said. "He is forcing property taxes up. Gov. Culver raised Iowans' taxes. He lied to Iowans."

Calling the current system broken, Fong said the only way to decrease property taxes is operate the items they fund more efficiently.

"All you can say is how can we cut the expenses at these local levels," Fong added.

Income taxes have a whole different future in Fong's mind, a future that involves dissolution. As part of his plan for Iowa by 2020, Fong would like to eliminate income taxes to create an even playing field and accelerate economic growth.

"The worst thing you can tax is productivity," Fong said. "A tax is a disincentive to what you're taxing. Why would you limit income?"

Under his plan, controlled spending would lead to additional money replacing income taxes. This would lead to economic development and make Iowa a "magnet for next-generation talent."

By doing this responsibly and not deficit spending, Fong believes every county in Iowa could see population and job growth by 2020.

"Let's leave no county behind, because the last 30 years we have," said Fong. "We have to turn that around."

Infrastructure

This attitude of helping all of Iowa's 99 counties also translates to infrastructure.

"A strong infrastructure is a vital part of making sure Iowa grows across the state," Fong said.

While saying infrastructure issues aren't isolated to rural areas, Fong does think the current government has misplaced priorities.

"It's ridiculous to look at everything we spend and say that's equal priority when the reality is you can get by for a year without the Iowa Film Office, but if a bridge falls down you're out of luck," he said. "State government has to prioritize things like public safety and public infrastructure at a higher level, and then it has to get out of the business of picking winners and losers among its own communities."

According to Fong, a vast majority of Iowa's counties are shrinking. This is because government officials continue to focus on urban areas and spend infrastructure money on other projects.

"While politicians may run around and say I care so much for rural Iowa, the reality is they either don't care or in caring they are failed leaders," Fong said.

Rails

One thing Fong isn't focused on bringing to southwest Iowa is additional passenger rail service.

While he did say the advantages of commercial rail systems are clear, Fong called passenger service a "nice to have item that never pays for itself."

Fong said Iowa's immediate future needs the current infrastructure to be fixed before things like passenger rail systems can be expanded.

Budget

An obvious critic of Gov. Culver, Fong said the state's current budget crisis can be blamed on shallow cuts and broken spending laws, adding he would veto any budget that wasn't balanced and in compliance with the 99 percent spending limitation law.

"I would not be raiding funds and playing accounting games like Gov. Culver has," Fong said.

Despite rumblings of a possible Branstad candidacy, Fong said he will continue to share his message and vision of Iowa's future.

"I'm committed to see this through to the end," said Fong. "But, what is the end? That's up to the Republican voters."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0414-39707061