(Mount Ayr) -- KMA News continues its "Meet the Candidates" series, featuring the candidates running in key races in the June Iowa Primary. Today's segment features the second of two candidates running for the Republican nomination in Iowa's 17th House District, Paul Dykstra.
Born and raised as what he calls "a pastor's kid," Dykstra and his wife worked for Maytag in Newton for 20 years. After the plant closed, Dykstra acquired 1,400 acres of farmland in southwest Iowa, and became involved in cattle and hog production. Heavily involved in politics, Dykstra has served as a Republican state central committee member, as well as a county committee chair. He also served a four-year term on the Ringgold County Board of Supervisors. Dykstra has also served as director of the Iowa Prayer Caucus, and chairs Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds' prayer team. Speaking on KMA's "Morning Line" program" Tuesday morning, Dykstra says he was approached to run for the seat vacated by Cecil Dolecheck's retirement. Taxes are among his concerns. Though he supports the flat tax rate proposal for income taxes passed in this year's legislative session, Dykstra expresses concern about the impact of further tax reductions on the budgets and services of county and municipal government.
"If you live here in southern Iowa, you know how tight county budgets are," said Dykstra. "We've been making silk purses out of sow's ears for years. You know, with the increase of inflation, the cost of county and state government is huge, with a 50% increase in fuel costs. It adds to the law enforcement budget, it adds to secondary roads, it adds to the state, the highway patrol--everybody that travels on fuel. It's a big concern. We just have to be careful when it comes to a balanced approach that affects all citizens equally when it comes to taxes."
Saying it's been successful in other states, Dykstra supports the governor's proposed school scholarship program, allowing some Iowa children to attend private institutions.
"In other states where they've took that approach--West Virginia being one--it's advanced education in that state," he said. "I think we have an opportunity here to get tighter control over maybe some of the schools that are maybe not some of the schools that are not following the moral standards that we appreciate."
Economic development is another focus of Dykstra's campaign. He says there's a great need for startup incentives for new companies in order to rejuvenate manufacturing in small communities.
"Some people think that we should be a service industry," said Dykstra. "They think that high speed internet cures things--and it helps. But, you can ship corn over the internet. We have to have infrastructure. We have to have manufacturing come back. If you're just in service, what do you have that people need? We get burdened with so much paperwork anymore. We need to bring manufacturing back."
You can hear the full interview with Paul Dykstra here:
Next on "Meet the Candidates," we'll hear from the first of three candidates running for the Iowa 3rd Congressional District's Republican nomination, Zach Nunn.
