Daniel Wojcik, Democratic Candidate for House District #48, May 20, 2026

At this time, I'm visiting with Daniel Wojcik. He is the Democratic candidate seeking the nomination to be the, well, Democratic candidate in the 48th House District here in Boone County, a portion of Story County. And Daniel, thanks for taking time visiting with us. Did I get your name right? Yes, yes you did. I got to keep practicing though. Anyway, I tell you, Daniel, thanks again for coming in and visiting with us. We have three candidates. Who would have thought, huh? I'll tell you this, three months ago, anyone was out there clamoring for any candidates. I was paying attention here and there, saw that there were no one out there. It was no one representing the Democratic Party. And I had a conversation with my wife and decided that perhaps this was the time for me to go ahead and put my name out there. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about you. Let folks know a little bit about you. Residing Boone? Yep. Married, obviously, you said. That I am. Got married here in Boone, actually. Okay, and kids, family? Yep. I got three kids. All have gone through the Boone School Districts here. Two of them graduated. Got a third still here attending the high school. She is working her way through and just counting the days down until the school year is done currently. Yeah, they're all doing that. So anyway, the reason, you've been a candidate before. You've had your name out there on the ballot for other things. What, school board at one time? Yeah, school board back in 2017. I went ahead and ran. Okay. But did not, was not successful? Didn't deter you, did it? No, no, it did not. If nothing else, it taught me a good bit about running and basically just, you know, cordial sportsmanship, you know, acknowledging, you know, when I've lost, I've lost, and to actually go ahead and acknowledge the person who won. So that was a good lesson to learn. So does it give you time when you do something like that? Now, that would be a special, but take a look at what's going on in the school, trying to learn more about what's happening, that kind of thing? Yeah, absolutely. You know, you kind of start going ahead. You read up on all the different issues that the school board's been facing, the different challenges that they've had, the decisions that they've had to make at those times, and you try to go ahead and figure, well, you know, essentially ask yourself, you know, how would I have voted in that situation? And then you just kind of play it forward and see, you know, it's like, well, if I had made that choice, where would we be today? Now, you get to look at what's happening at the state level. And obviously, there's a lot there. Oh, yeah, there absolutely is. It's a similar game, but on a much larger scale, by all means. I know, ever since I put my name out, I've been paying a lot more attention to things I've been going on in the state house, just to see what there is. I've been doing a lot more research. I know this past year, we had over 1700 bills that were actually introduced, of which we only passed 175 into law. So that's like 10% that actually got passed. Now, the thing that kind of frustrated me was out of that 1700, 500 were bills that were introduced by Democrats. Only one bill actually became a law that was introduced by Democrats last year. One bill. And the only reason that bill got pushed through is because a lone Republican was willing to co-sponsor it. That was it. If that Republican had not gotten out there and co-sponsored it, that bill would have been dead in the water. Didn't have any. So things that the party was looking at, just while I know one of the things, because they had their version, their thoughts on doing property tax reform, which we know was a conglomeration again from the House and the Senate that made it through. Yeah, I'm kind of big on taxes myself. I don't agree with a lot of the stuff that we have in regards to it. I mean, I know how a lot of the money gets spent as far as how it comes in and how, why things get taxed out. I actually, when I first came here to Boone, gosh, back in 2009, I actually spent a couple of months working for the county assessor's office. And I actually had an opportunity to learn how exactly a lot of that stuff worked. And it was very enlightening to kind of peer behind the curtain and see exactly how properties get taxed out by the county assessor. And I learned a lot of really important lessons through it. That's one of the things that, because that's the biggest, when they were talking about tax levies and things this year and would do the public hearings, most of the people had the complaint on the valuations, which is the assessor, which is basically a math formula. Yeah, it absolutely is. And so one of the things I don't know if most of our listeners are aware of is once you receive your assessment, you have one month, and that's essentially the month of April to go in and actually challenge your assessment. Now, when you go in, you can't just say, well, I think you're charging me too much. You actually have to have proof as to why you believe they're charging you too much, because your assessment is based on a similar property in similar conditions. So unless you want to go ahead and say, well, you know, you have my house listed as like fine, I think my house is actually poor, or you have to make your arguments. So you know, so all of this into the property tax reform. So have you taken a look kind of at what the legislature put out? Is this something I mean, do you have concerns? Well, I always have concerns when it comes to any kind of a tax, because, you know, it's like, where is the money going to get spent? Now, I will admit, I haven't had a chance to actually review it. So I didn't see exactly what they did with with the property tax reform. We know they'd set limits on, like on cities and counties, 2% general levy increase, which as we know, inflation has been a little higher. Yeah, inflation has been definitely higher than 2%. So I mean, going ahead, setting it at 2, it's nice. But I mean, I can tell you, I've talked with plenty of people throughout the entire county. And, you know, people who are doing well, aren't too concerned about paying a little extra property tax, if it means that they're going to have roads that are actually drivable, bridges that they can actually drive over without having to worry about, like, is this going to hold? So people are okay with the idea of paying a little bit more in property tax, but it just has to be, it's a matter of finding that magic number. Yeah, that essential service. Correct. Getting those things too. Well, let's talk about some of the other things that, of course, the legislature had a lot of other things they were working on. What are some of the highlights, things that you look at that you like to talk to folks about when you start with those? Come and say, tell me a little bit about what you're thinking about this. So probably the biggest thing that comes to my mind is actually the budget. Because I know that the legislature just recently passed the budget like maybe two weeks ago. Yeah. And they were supposed to have had it done three weeks ago. It does get to kind of right at the end. Yeah. And it's kind of frustrating that it took them the entire session just to go ahead and get it done. Because the waiting on that budget, that puts a lot of people out, that actually stuff that affects like here locally, that's going to affect our community schools. Because that means they're not getting their, they're getting their budget later. So they don't know what their budget is or how they're going to be able to use it. Locally here, our community school DMACC here. Yeah. You know, same deal. They don't know what they're getting for their budget until the very last minute. And they have that negotiated out where they're supposed to have had it months ago. But because of delays going on throughout the state, with our representatives, we're not getting that right away. And so that's one of the things I would want to push forward is to make sure we're getting that budget put out in a very timely fashion so that the services that need that budget to figure it out can do so in a timely fashion. A perfect one that comes up, I think a lot of times people don't think about it. But again, big part of the budget, DOT, a lot of transportation. And you mentioned roads earlier. Our roads, and I know locally people are going to talk about just the roads in Boone. But again, only so much money comes in for that. Well, so since we're talking about roads a little bit, I know here in Boone, basically at the intersection of Highway 30, and I want to say it sells Story Street, there's actually plans to put in a roundabout in there at some point within the next year or two. And that's all money that comes from the DOT. And so that's going to be a pretty big project. It's going to definitely slow things up. I remember when they put in the roundabout down in, I believe it was Granger over the last year, and that took what felt like nine months for them to get that finally in. But they got it in. And I haven't heard any complaints about anything down in Granger, about any accidents or anything. So I think it's just a matter of time to get it in. I think enough Iowans are familiar with roundabouts these days. We have plenty of them over in Ames, some in that south side where I know a part of District 48 is. So yeah, I think once we get it in, people will be good with it. I think the big one you're thinking about is 30 and then Corporal Sneddon Drive, where Daisy is going to be. Yeah, that'll be an interesting one. So we'll see how that goes. Anyway, those are DOT, again, they have a lot of projects. And again, they have to spread that money around. Oh, absolutely. And if they don't know when they're getting, they're not going to know exactly what they can get focused on, whether they need to focus on a section of road, if they have to focus on a bridge. And so those are definite issues that the sooner they can get those funds, the better they can prepare and get those projects put into effect. So a lot of this money they get, and some of it goes on and trickles down to the county levels and things like that. And that's where we get our bridge replacement dollars. A lot of times comes either a combination of state and federal money, that sort of thing. And bridges, like in the rural part of Boone County, well, we're not talking the big spans, but just any kind of bridge. Prices have gone, you know, from say $500,000 a couple years ago to $800, $900,000. It's getting very expensive. Well, and with the various trade wars that we've had going on here with that our president has decided to go with, because I mean, we get a lot of our wood from Canada. And so when that wood comes in from Canada, we're now paying a much higher price than we used to pay just like two years ago. So a project that would have cost you, as you pointed out, like a half a million dollars is now something going to have increased by like 25 to 40% in cost. And that's just, you know, something that's not acceptable. We don't want to live with something like that. We have to know those projects so we can get those bids in early and get those prices locked down. Let's talk about some of the other hot button things I know for many. And again, we saw a Republican Democrat carbon pipeline. Yeah. And in imminent domain, obviously, they did not, hey, Boone County only had like three property owners involved. So yeah, I made no like one of the property owners, but you know, that's besides the point. So but again, just the concept of it across a lot of people, it's private business. That's what they're calling. Yeah. So eminent domain is supposed to be used for basically public works, like putting through roads, for example. But to go ahead and put through like a pipeline for basically what is essentially a private business. I that's not what eminent domain is meant for us. Not what it should be getting used for by any means. So obviously opposed. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not a fan of using it for private commercial uses. I mean, if we're going to put through like a like a new highway or something or a bridge to Spana River, hey, great, let's do it. But private use, no, I can't see it. Let's talk about economic development type things. We've had quite a bit actually going in Boone County, a lot of housing type things that come from the state level of grants. But how do we keep up that pace? Obviously, it's a challenge because you're trying to recruit these businesses to locate here. You got to have the workforce for them. So here's the really interesting thing. If I don't know how familiar you are with the the population history of Boone. Oh, yeah, pretty pretty consistent. Yeah, it hasn't changed in a century. We've had the same population for a century. It hasn't grown or shrunk. I think our average growth has been something like 0.01% over the last 100 years, which is a staggering number because it's unrealistic. It shouldn't happen. Most cities are either going to get bigger or they're going to get smaller. But Boone has stayed the same, which tells me that people are coming and going at the same rate, which is really unusual. You mentioned developments. Obviously, we have Daisy coming on in, which is going to hopefully be a really big economic boom here for the town. I know we have a residential construction going up just north of 20th Street here in town. I've seen that literally go up. We have a lot of other different projects that keep popping up here and there. I think the biggest challenge that we have is finding the right industries that are going to find the support that we want here in Boone that people can actually get behind. That's what I've seen as the biggest challenge over the last 15 years. Again, those are the kinds of things and anybody in the state would like to see it. Obviously, that's part of what so the state could read. I know they're looking. The one thing I know that people talk about is I don't like doing economic development because I don't like picking the winners and losers.

Is that what it really is? Or is it offering an incentive or benefit to any business to try? I would say if we can offer an incentive to first-time business owners, that would be a huge boon to basically get businesses to come on in. I had a conversation with actually Guy Morgan not too long ago about the possibilities of economics and what we could possibly do. My suggestion was if we could figure out a way to set up some kind of a grant program for first-time business owners to actually be able to go ahead, come in here and just have that initial startup money. If you can come in, you can rent a place and know that, hey, my rent is taken care of for the first two, four months while you're trying to get yourself established, that would be a tremendous win for any business that wants to start up here. Just giving that initial step up. Let's talk about school education. You had kids go through the schools. We know schools are being challenged. Again, a lot of it is due to declining enrollment. Of course, we've had the issues at the state level getting the money and how much will give you a 2% increase and your utilities have gone up 4%. Part of that challenge is also not just getting a 2% increase in the budget, but what a lot of people don't talk about is the fact that the teachers still get that 3% raise. Even though you're getting a 2% increase, you have that 3% output. You're actually at a minus 1%, which people don't want to acknowledge. It's right there. It's just a matter of looking at it and choosing to acknowledge it. I think part of the challenge that we currently have is that we've been seeing a decrease in the enrollment here. I think that's partly because with the current generation that's out there, they're not having as many kids. I know I've talked with a number of young people anywhere between the ages, and they're like, for me, young people is people in their 20s and 30s. A lot of them have lost a lot of hope. They look out there at the world we have today. It's not the America I grew up with in the 70s and 80s. It's not the Iowa I went to school to in the 90s. It's a completely different beast today. In my day, we didn't have cell phones. We didn't really have personal laptops or computers. Kids grew up with that all today, so they get inundated with it on a daily basis. My kids growing up, I gave them a choice. They could either get into sports or they could get into the arts. All my kids said, I'll get into the arts. You can only imagine how sad I was this past fall when they went ahead and basically got rid of the orchestra program here at Boone High for effective for the 26-27 school year. My youngest, that was her main reason for wanting to go to school was she loves orchestra. She loves that interaction, that community that it generates and fosters and everything that it offers to like building a character for her. Challenge of, again, having enough students to do it and having the dollars to keep doing it because Boone is not the only school. They were one of the first to cut a program, but a lot of others were dealing with even bigger reductions. Well, I know part of that challenge has been the school voucher program that the state decided to put into effect not too long ago. Some people will say, oh, but it's really good because they're going to get all these tax benefits to the school. They'll tell you that it's a great thing, but I look at it and I go, nah, not really because that means all of our tax dollars are then basically kind of up for grab as far as where they're getting put. Are those kids choosing to go to a local school here? Are they going to a different school? Are they going to a private school? And the biggest challenge that I know we've kind of seen is when they go to the private school, they're not held to the same standards, especially when they're at a private school that can come to the public school for services that the private school may not have, such as your sports and your band and orchestra. But now with orchestra being gone, well, that's something that they're going to lose out on. You have to try somewhere else. So let's talk about letting voters know because we do have the primary coming up. I know you guys have a couple of events where you'd like people to come in. You've had several already around where people have come in to visit with you, but for you, what, I mean, you're busy, you're working, you're still campaigning. How's it going and how do they find out more about your campaign? So easiest way to find me, I actually have a Facebook page. It's simply Dan Wojcik for Iowa. It's all words, no numbers or anything. It's Dan Wojcik, W-O-J-C-I-K for Iowa. I'm pretty easy to find on there. It's not too hard to find me. I know we have our next big event is on the 30th of May here, which I believe is a Saturday at the Historical Center. 10 a.m., we're going to have a little debate between myself and the other two candidates here. So it'll be a very interesting time, I believe. I did not ask all of them, but how do you feel being a field of three? I'm excited by it. I love it. I came in as the first candidate to throw their hat name into the ring. Then shortly after that, Ben threw his name in, and then a couple of weeks later, Guy threw his name in. I was kind of going, wow, this just got really crowded, but it's also really exciting because these guys are kind of motivating me to get out, to do more, to get my name out there and let people know exactly who I am. I appreciate you taking time to stop and visit. Good luck in the primary. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.