Budget needs more cuts now and next fiscal year, says Republican gubernatorial candidate

Michael Schaffer

Nov. 2, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- A political newcomer with ties to the community was in Centerville Monday to speak at the Republican Hall of Fame dinner honoring Sharon Tice held at Appanoose Country Club.

Christian Fong, whose grandmother's side of the family is from Centerville, has never run for political office. Yet this 32-year-old son of a Chinese immigrant has decided to run for governor of Iowa, taking on a popular former Republican governor and a slew of challengers.

Fong -- a pro-life, fiscal and social conservative Republican -- briefly visited the Daily Iowegian office Monday afternoon for an interview. He pointed out his business background as a managing director at Aegon (NYSE:AEG) in Cedar Rapids has given him the experience necessary to deal with the state's precarious financial situation.

"I'm used to the questions of finance. I'm used to looking at difficult financial situations and finding to see my way through them," Fong said.

The 10 percent across-the-board budget cut by Gov. Chet Culver recently was not enough to solve the state's budget woes, Fong said. And state budget expenditures for the next fiscal year are expected to be $6.5 billion while revenue is expected to come in at $5.5 billion, he said.

"He (Culver) grew spending by 20 percent then cut it by 10 percent. So to cut expenditures by 10 percent doesn't get you there," Fong said. "I don't know where he learned his budget appetite skills but yo-yo dieting doesn't work when you're trying to lose weight and it doesn't work when you're trying to manage the state finances."

Fong said the Culver administration shouldn't have grown government so fast and across-the-board budget cuts don't prioritize. He predicted state government is going to have to make even more budget cuts in the future.

"It is a problem that occurred over time," Fong said. "And you get yourself in a situation and if you make some bad choices, sometimes you've just got to own up to it and say, 'You know what, I shouldn't have grown so fast. We're going to have to correct this back.'"

If elected, Fong said his first budget would be 5 percent or $350 million less than Culver's last budget. He said state government has to learn to live within its means.

The short-term issues facing state government is "out of control growth," the "inability to prioritize" and "the tendency to manage government in a way that Iowans can't understand and is in violation of the rules that we set for ourselves," Fong said. Long-term the state needs to address job creation and economic growth across the entire state and not just in major metropolitan areas.

He said in the 1980s the state embraced and still follows an economic model that concentrates "growth into targeted industries and targeted cities. As a result only 14 of Iowa's 99 counties have grown since 1980."

He said the state uses tax credits to entice businesses to come to Iowa, which means everyone else makes up the difference and when the credits expire, the businesses end up leaving.

Fong said the state needs to level the playing field and lower the barriers of competition. He said his goal as governor would be to eliminate state income tax.

"And that will make us competitive from a business standpoint," Fong said."That will get jobs created and it's not just going to be jobs in Des Moines and Iowa City and Ames, it'll be jobs in Centerville and Eddyville and Waukon."

Fong said on his first day as governor he would put a stop to "taxpayer funding of government lobbyists." He also said Iowans should have the opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

"And that's an amendment that I would personally support," Fong said. "I think Iowans will vote for traditional marriage. And I would cast a vote for traditional marriage."

The offspring of an immigrant from China and a Nebraska farm girl graduated from Dartmouth in 2005 with a MBA. He and his wife Jenelle, a school teacher, have been married 11 years, live in Cedar Rapids and have three children, Luther, 7, Ty, 5 and Elsa, 2.

Additional information about Christian Fong can be found at www.christianfong.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0357-39375948