‘I want to support people first’

With less than a week until Election Day, gubernatorial Democratic candidate Fred Hubbell is keeping his priorities of education, health care and protecting IPERS at the forefront of his message.

'I want to support people first,” Hubbell said in a phone interview with the News on Monday, Oct. 29.

Hubbell has pledged to increase yearly state funding for schools by the rate of inflation by producing a balanced budget that prioritizes public schools.

Hubbell said he wants to increase funding in part because of the need for more school counselors 'to help with substance abuse and mental health,” he said.

'If it's a choice between a counselor or teacher, the schools let counselors go,” Hubbell said. 'That's a big reason why we need to properly fund our schools. If we do that, kids are going to get a better opportunity to learn.”

Hubbell said he hopes to further address mental health by bringing more beds back to the state. When the state closed the Mt. Pleasant Mental Health Institute, they didn't replace it with anything, he said.

'It basically put people back on the street, which has not worked,” Hubbell said, adding that some of those people end up in jail, which is both expensive for the taxpayer and fails to address the underlying issue.

Investing in local crisis units, jail diversion programs and crisis intervention training is a way for communities to save local tax dollars and help people, Hubbell said.

Reversing the privatization of Medicaid is another priority for Hubbell, who said it is currently a disaster. Hubbell said Medicaid as it is neglects to recognize there are different types of people in the system and treats everyone the same. What's more is costs are rising faster than ever and providers go unpaid, Hubbell said.

'We need to make sure we're paying providers properly,” Hubbell said. 'I was just at community hospital at Iowa Falls, and they're not getting paid very well at all by these MCOs, but they used to get paid timely and on a reasonable basis.

'MCOs making it very difficult for our providers to recruit people and provide quality service,” Hubbell continued.

Finally, Hubbell said if he were governor he would protect IPERS and that it's a sustainable program.

'(IPERS) is one of the best managed pension plans for state employees in the country. There's nothing wrong with it. It needs to be continually properly managed,” Hubbell said.

Other priorities Hubbell has harped on during his campaign are strengthening collective-bargaining rights and raising the minimum wage.

As Election Day approaches, Hubbell said he is very excited. Hubbell had just visited Iowa Falls, where he had coffee with constituents and said the small town is very enthusiastic, knocking on doors and already voting early and absentee.

'I think the Democrats are going to do very well,” he said.

Hubbell's lieutenant governor running-mate is Rita Hart.

'She's a top-drawer candidate, and we're very proud to have here on our ticket,” Hubbell said.