Culver launches TV ad to explain budget cuts

Gov. Chet Culver's re-election campaign announced today it was launching a television ad highlighting his decision last week to order a 10 percent across-the-board cut to the state budget, which includes a cut to his own salary.

In the ad, entitled “Balanced Budget,” Culver said it is his responsibility to make tough budget decisions instead of “passing the buck” to the Legislature or raising taxes.

“I chose tough medicine today to build a stronger Iowa for tomorrow,” Culver says in the ad.

Culver told reporters Friday that he felt it was important to explain to Iowans why he cut the budget 10 percent.

“I didn't want to leave any doubt in anyone's mind that I did the right thing,” Culver said. “I made a tough decision under tough economic circumstances, and I wanted to make sure that I told the story as opposed to anyone else.”

Culver's campaign manager, Andrew Roos, said they are spending $120,000 to run the ad in the Cedar Rapids and Des Moines markets.

Culver has come under fire from critics and those challenging him in next year's governor's race for not reducing state spending enough as the economic downturn hit.

They say Culver should have made more targeted cuts as the budget blueprint for the current fiscal year was written, rather than waiting and being forced to order an across-the-board cut that affected a wide swath of state government.

“The choice Gov. Culver fails to mention is his choice to sign budgets over the last two years that have grown state government by a rate that was clearly unsustainable,” said Republican candidate for governor Christian Fong of Cedar Rapids. “At the end of the day, ultimately it was Gov. Culver's choices that brought us to this point.”