Democratic challenger for Iowa Governor Fred Hubbell attacked Gov. Kim Reynolds for her “fiscal irresponsibilities” before a crowd of more than 45 students in front of Parks Library Tuesday afternoon.

These irresponsibilities included cuts to education funds, an unpredictable budget, ineffective healthcare reform and corporate tax breaks, Hubbell said.

“We need to stop wasteful tax giveaways and put that money into education,” Hubbell said. “[K-12] classes are getting bigger and different programs are getting squeezed. We need to invest in K-12 again.”

In the debates, Reynolds criticized Hubbell’s potential policies and said his tax hikes would hurt Iowans.

“We won’t need to raise taxes much if we stop these wasteful giveaways,” Hubbell said. “And if we do giveaways, it’s going to be for the Iowa middle class.”

Hubbell also spoke about focusing more on Iowa’s renewable energy infrastructure. He said that encouraging growth in green energy and focusing funding on education will help create thousands of jobs for Iowans.

“In 2009 there were around 1,500 jobs in wind energy,” Hubbell said. “Now there’s more than 9,000 jobs. We currently have around 1,200 jobs in solar and I think we can get that number around 3,000 or 4,000.”

Hubbell said actions under Gov. Reynolds took away incentives for Iowa companies to invest in cleaner forms of energy.

“Earlier this year the Governor signed a bill that takes away incentives to invest in renewable energy,” Hubbell said, referring to Senate File 2311. “The more solar power we use means less coal and natural gas being burned.”

Members of Iowa State College Democrats handed out Hubbell-Hart campaign signs to the crowd, and College Democrats President Taylor Blair encouraged students to vote before the candidate took the floor.

“We had hundreds of students vote in the Memorial Union yesterday,” Blair said. “There’s only two weeks left and so many great candidates to vote for.”

Student Body Vice President Juan Bibiloni was among those in attendance. He said he was walking to the library and noticed some friends waiting to meet Hubbell.

“I’m interested in meeting the candidates,” Bibiloni said. “I’m here in a completely non-partisan fashion. Julian [Neely] was fortunate to meet Kim Reynolds when she visited the campus over the summer. I couldn’t be here for that, but I can meet Hubbell today.”

Candidates for local government also attended Hubbell’s visit. Linda Murken is running for Story County Supervisor, and she said she supports Hubbell because of his promises to return more power to local governments.

“Local governments were investing in a variety of things that are helpful for people,” Murken said. “Six counties raised their minimum wage, and Dubuque initiated regulations on plastic bags. Governor Reynolds signed a pre-emptive bill that eliminated those actions in our counties. Hubbell wants local government to be able to lead the people in their districts.”

Correction: At 3:10 p.m. on Oct. 24 a correction was made regarding the number of people Blair said voted. The initial report read that “over one hundred” people voted, but Blair in fact said “hundreds of people voted.”