Trending
Two candidates will face off against each other in the Nov. 3 general election for the Iowa House of Representatives District 51 seat.
Incumbent Republican Brett Barker, the former Nevada mayor, is seeking a second term after winning his first legislative election in 2024. In the June primary, he defeated challenger Shane Heintz of Nevada for the Republican spot in the election.
The other is political newcomer and Democratic candidate Teresa Perin of Rhodes. Perin is a farmer and an English teacher at Marshalltown High School.
District 51 covers the northwest, southwest and northeast quadrants of Marshall County — including communities of Green Mountain, Albion, Liscomb, St. Anthony, Clemons, Rhodes, Melbourne and State Center — along with a large swath of Story County outside of Ames.
The candidates’ answers to the first half of the T-R’s questionnaire are printed below. Part 2 will be printed in the Thursday edition.
How will you address property taxes if elected?
Brett Barker: I voted for bipartisan legislation to rein in the growth of property taxes and give taxpayers a stronger voice in local spending decisions. As those reforms take effect, we need to monitor the results and make adjustments where necessary. I'll continue working to provide meaningful property tax relief while ensuring our communities can fund essential services and remain strong places to live and work.
Teresa Perin:The last legislative session addressed property taxes to try and help alleviate some of the burden for people, but it was rushed and might not even benefit people because it failed to cap the assessment values. At the same time, it restricted the income for our cities and counties. That's why we now have Des Moines asking its residents what services they want to cut - police, libraries, fire. As a state under full Republican control for the last nine years, we've seen a lot of tax cuts that, unfortunately, disproportionately benefit the wealthy. It's also seen our state's economic ranking fall to the bottom of the nation. Using the rainy day fund to the tune of a billion dollars a year is not sustainable. The entire state budget needs to be evaluated and revised into something that is sustainable and truly benefits the working class and those on fixed incomes.
What action, if any, will you push the legislature to take on data centers?
Barker: I support economic development, but it must benefit Iowans. Data centers should not receive open-ended incentives or shift the cost of massive infrastructure investments onto Iowa families and other ratepayers. I support greater transparency surrounding incentives, energy and water use and infrastructure costs so taxpayers can be confident these projects are truly benefiting their communities.
Perin: I believe we need to immediately call for a statewide moratorium on data centers until legislation can be passed that provides consistency across the state. While one city might elect to have a data center built within its incorporated area, the impact does not stay within the city limits. Until we have consistent expectations for taxes, employment, resource consumption and environmental impacts, there needs to be a hold.
MPACT is set to lose funding at the end of the year. Will you take any action to provide state funding for the program?
Barker: Yes. Through my work in healthcare, I see how important accessible mental health services are. I strongly support MPACT and its mobile crisis services and will advocate for continued funding so this important resource remains available to our communities.
Perin: MPACT was funded through a federal grant. Grants typically are not a forever guarantee, and when they end, funding needs to come from the local level or through finding a different grant. This is a wonderful program, and I truly believe in preventative measures and meeting the needs of people. I would love to be able to help continue and further expand this program to other communities.
However, with the current state of our budget, I'm not sure how we could just give Marshalltown $200,000 to continue the program. I know Nevada, in my legislative district, would love to have that much money on top of its regular budget to put more services in place to assist the police and community. But the state budget is in a mess from mismanagement, and cities like Newton are looking at implementing a franchise fee just to make up for losses due to the property tax law from last session. The budget has to be balanced before taking on projects for individual communities.
Rising cancer rates are a concern for many Iowans. What action should the legislature take to lower the rate?
Barker: Iowa needs an evidence-based approach focused on prevention, early detection and research. I supported increased investment in cancer research, including $3 million for pediatric cancer research, as well as efforts to address radon exposure and our high lung cancer rates. We need to continue following the science and act aggressively where evidence shows we can prevent cancer and save lives.
Perin: We know some of what is causing the high cancer rates. Seventy-one percent of Iowa homes test above acceptable levels for radon. We have to find a way to help with remediating already existing homes. We have to move beyond monitoring nitrates in our water and work on preventing them from entering the waterways. The huge number of private wells that have not been tested is problematic. We need to figure out how to fix some of these issues.
With physicians leaving the state and medical facilities either closing or reducing services, what will you do to repair Iowa’s healthcare system?
Barker: Healthcare access is particularly important in small-town and rural Iowa. I have supported efforts to recruit and retain healthcare professionals, strengthen maternal and infant care, improve mental health services and lower prescription drug costs. We must continue reducing barriers to care and building a healthcare workforce capable of serving Iowans close to home.
Perin: Part of this comes from policies at the federal level. The cuts to the ACA subsidies and medicare are devastating to our rural communities. Additionally, privatizing medicare has not been good for the state. It has made it more difficult for doctors and hospitals to receive payment. One example is the current lawsuit against NuCara Pharmacy for not receiving $22 million in payments collected for the state. It also does not help that the state legislature has recently discussed or passed several laws that are truly anti-science and medicine. Doctors need to be trusted to provide the care they are trained to give. We also need to make the state a place where physicians want to practice, providing a quality of life that inspires people to want to raise a family here.
Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.