Q&A with Senate 42 candidate Bruce Gardner

Bruce Gardner, 72, of Garrison, is running without a party for House Senate District 42 in the Nov. 8 general election. Gardner, managing member of an economic development third-party administrator group, is seeking his first term in the statehouse.

The Gazette posed a set of questions to all area statehouse candidates. Below is the transcript of Gardner’s answers. Polls will be open on election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

What do you think are the three most important issues the state is facing? What would you do to address them?

Gardner: Clean water, clean energy, rural community investment

Do you support the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines? Why or why not?

Gardner: The CO2 pipelines will be considered the same as all other public utilities such as electric, oil, natural gas, etc., and those are all for profit and the CO2 pipelines are already coming under the same laws and regulations as the other currently existing pipelines which use eminent domain. They will be considered acceptable due to the environmental aspect and as a supportive element to corn growers and ethanol plants. My two concerns are why are we in a position that the CO2 is a part of the ethanol manufacturing and why didn't we have an Iowa company do this, instead of a company from Texas? Additionally, it has recently been shown that other food products will be in shortage because there is a shortage of CO2 for their manufacture and packaging. We have an excess and others have none.

What restrictions or limitations should be placed on the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines?

Gardner: My family farm had two usages from eminent domain. One was a main electricity line that was between two large transformer stations and the line served the county seat. When it was late summer, there would be a storm and an outage and the trucks would come right into the fields and “plow” up the ground and run over the corn and there was no offsetting the damage. The other one was a natural gas pipeline that went through the fields and pastures and tore up roads, fences, tile, waterways, terraces, etc. All of those were repaired and my father used to say that he could connect the drying bins and the house to natural gas due to the pipeline being about 100 feet from the farmstead. The pipeline is marked at the roads' edge with yellow markers and replacement fence posts.

The state is projected to have a budget surplus of more than $1 billion. What would be your top priorities for that surplus?

Gardner: Clean water, clean energy, rural community investment and better education. When I was in public school, Iowa was ranked number one. When I became an adult, Iowa was ranked in the top three, with Wisconsin and Minnesota. Now, we are ranked between 19th to 24th. Why are we now ranked so low? Or is it that other states have developed a much better public education plan? And why are we using public tax funds to support private education systems? Are they better than our current public education? If so, why have we not improved our public education system so there would be no need to offer public tax dollars to support private education? This sounds like a payoff for political support.

What changes — beyond those made in recent sessions — would you like to see made to Iowa's tax code?

Gardner: There are several states that have no personal income tax, and some have no business income tax. They support all the public budgets with property taxation. Should we consider spending some time looking into that, or should we be much more diligent with what taxes are now collected. The state department with the largest budget is the DOT, yet we have a failing road system. And the governor supports heavier loads to be carried on these, already, over damaged avenues which causes greater opportunity for accidents and deaths. The current tax code is supposed to be designed to collect from those who have, according to their capability to pay. We have a tax code that supports those with, and demands from those who don't. To have rural community investment, there needs to be a better tax plan.

Under what circumstances should Iowans be able to access abortion services in the state? What if any, exceptions should apply to any abortion bans?

Gardner: My stance is to make women and children's health care a priority and abortions accessible at need.

What are your ideas for improving public schools?

Gardner: More personalized instruction. When I taught at Kirkwood, we tested the entire class for one week and then divided the students into groups according to need. Those students who tested quite low, compared to the rest of the class, were instructed in a small private group. At the end of the semester, the ones who had tested low were brought back in to take the final test with the rest of the class. They scored well within the rest of the group, without stress or confusion or error. Suddenly, they had gotten the confidence and the instruction that it took to understand and not be passed on, or failed and forgotten. Secondly, we are building new facilities with little benefit to the students. Athletics are the primary part of instruction, where other countries have superior tested results.

Do you support further use of state funds to help parents pay the costs of non-public schools or home schooling for grades K-12? Why or why not?

Gardner: I have no issue with private schools, but there is a reason for the parents who consider it important for their children to be taught in a private school. I have seen superior test results coming from private schools when I scored tests at Pearson. And the responses were better thought out and written. Is that a reason to underwrite private schools, or wouldn't it be a better awakening to improve public schools and to stop bullying and allow students to have more open communication, while having a more rigorous curriculum that supports children and puts parents as part of responsibility for failure and fault? Integrate, innovate, and outperform should be the three pillars of school instruction, not subsidizing and segregation of private school students from the public.

Should Iowa ban the use of hand-held mobile devices while driving?

Gardner: Not banned, but regulated.

Should automated traffic cameras be banned?

Gardner: Not banned, but regulated.