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BLOOMFIELD, IOWA -- Iowa State Senator Keith Kreiman (D), of Bloomfield, lent a listening ear Oct. 13.

As part of a ‘Working Families Tour,’ Sen. Kreiman and Iowa State Senator Tom Courtney (D), of Burlington, hosted a listening post.

They wanted to hear from the people and discuss ways for working families to succeed in the current economic situation.

“We just had [a listening post] in Corydon a little bit earlier today and we talked about property taxes, we talked about the government bureaucracy and the roads, a number of issues [which will] hopefully gives us something to work on in state legislature and hopefully can help working families,” said Sen. Kreiman.

Issues discussed included the expansion of affordable, high-quality preschools, children’s health care, as well as job opportunities and the road conditions in Southeast Iowa.

“I think there [are] a number of things that we can do,” said Sen. Kreiman. “We can lower the property taxes, we can encourage the small businesses other than the huge corporations, we can make sure that the state spends only the amount of money that it should spend or absolutely needs to spend, rather than wasting.”

Why does Kreiman host these listening posts?

“Frankly, [the] people have the best ideas, so if we don't listen, then when you get to Des Moines or decision-making time, you don't have their expertise to rely on, so it's really good to listen,” said Sen. Kreiman.