Branstad answers Chronicle editor's questions

     Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds visited Hampton on Aug. 27 for a town hall meeting open to the public.

     The governor took a few minutes from his busy schedule to do a quick interview with the Hampton Chronicle News Editor Jeff Forward. This interview is also available on the Chronicle's ustream.tv channel.

Forward: "You're visiting all 99 counties; what's kind of the the goal you're trying to get out to the public?"

Branstad: "Well, we want to let people know we've made the tough decisions, we've got the state's financial house in order, and now we're reducing property taxes, reforming education, and we have the goal of being the healthiest state in the nation and we're working to make progress on all those issues."

Forward: "One of the things you talked about when you got re-elected last time was the creation of 200,000 new jobs for Iowa. How are you doing on that front?"

Branstad: "Well, we made  great progress. We've got two new big fertilizer plants coming to the state; we've got Facebook, we've got Google, Microsoft. Mid-America Energy, so, I'm guessing, $1.9 billion in their wind farms. Which also makes reliable, low-cost, renewable energy available as we work to bring more food processing and manufacturing to our state. Agriculture is one of our real strengths, but we're doing a better job now on adding value to and processing what we can do. So, that's creating a lot of good jobs. Companies like Kemin, that we met with the other day; what Cargill is doing. What Wellent Biosciences is doing out there, it's exciting developments."

Forward: For a county like Franklin and the City of Hampton, we're having a city council election this year, all the candidates that have declared so far have said one of their big things is to bring new businesses to the area and enhance existing businesses. What advice do you have for them to do those things?"

Read the full article in the Sept. 4 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.