Heaton, Shipley share vision for Iowa during forum

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a series of forums Tuesday night featuring candidates for the Iowa Statehouse.

The forums took place at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, and were moderated by Ian Bee of the Jefferson County Health Center.

One of the forums featured the candidates vying for House District 87, incumbent Republican Jeff Shipley and Democratic challenger Mike Heaton. House District 87 covers all of Van Buren County plus the southern half of Jefferson County including Fairfield, and the southwest corner of Henry County including Mt. Pleasant.

During opening remarks, Shipley touched on several policies he’s played a role in as a state representative. He talked about how the Van Buren County and Davis County school districts reached out to him for help in response to having to comply with federal regulations that they felt would harm their workforce. Shipley talked about how he is trying to protect Iowa from these and other “Biden mandates.”

Instead of focusing on policy right away, Heaton used his opening remarks to tell a story about a set of CorningWare dishes he received as a wedding gift. He got the whole set of about 10 dishes, and at the time, didn’t realize what he would do with so many of them. Then, when his mother passed away, he came home and found those CorningWare dishes in his refrigerator, all filled with food.

Heaton said the loved his friends and family showed him during that difficult time is something he wants to pass on to the constituents of House District 87.

“I will treat you like family,” he said. “No one is excluded. No one is left out.”

One of the first questions the candidates received dealt with taxes and tax incentives given to businesses. On that matter, Heaton said tax incentives must be focused on encouraging local entrepreneurship, since local business owners are the ones who will have to “look their employees in the eye” instead of big, out-of-state companies.

Shipley said that Iowa Gov. Reynolds and the Legislature has overhauled the tax code in recent years, and that he’d like to see even more changes. He said he’d prefer to fund government through consumption taxes instead of income taxes. He said that would encourage people to worker harder, knowing they would keep more of what they earned. He also said it would make Iowa more competitive with its neighbors in attracting business.

“We lose a lot of projects to South Dakota because of taxes,” he said.

The candidates were asked about the state’s labor pool and how to attract workers to Iowa. Shipley said the schools can do more to promote things such as industrial arts. He mentioned that Indian Hills Community College has a scholarship program for industrial arts, but it doesn’t get enough applicants to fill all the spots. He said that people are growing up without the skills necessary to do home repairs.

Heaton said the state should be spending money on things like worker training, education and health care, but instead Gov. Reynolds is “boasting about a $1.9 billion surplus.” Heaton said the large surplus is indicative of the state underfunding social services that could help attract workers.

When asked what makes them qualified to represent District 87 in the Iowa House, Heaton spoke about his work with the humanitarian aid organization UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. He said it taught him valuable lessons about the role good infrastructure plays in bringing people out of poverty. He talked about how it provides education for girls, without which they cannot achieve equality.

Shipley said he was qualified to represent the district because of his willingness to do the homework, like reading the federal government’s emergency use authorization for vaccines, which led him to question claims about how the COVID vaccines stopped transmission of the virus. He spoke about how he wasn’t shy about advertising his Christian faith, and that he is willing to say things that need to be said.

During closing remarks, Heaton recited a quote from Thomas Jefferson about how society changes over time, and that we should welcome change. He said that trying to stop change is like trying to fit into a jacket someone wore as a child. It used to fit but no longer does. He said his goal was to create a community that would be a more attractive place from the point of view of our grandchildren, and that while Democrats were willing to adapt to change, he said Republicans fear it.

In his closing comments, Shipley said one of the things he’s most worried about is the “adolescent mental health crisis,” and said that that the number of sixth-graders contemplating suicide has doubled in the past 10 years.

“We’re in serious trouble,” Shipley said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com