There’s a new, bipartisan plan to hand out millions of state tax dollars to stimulate the Iowa economy. The Republican and Democrat Leaders in the Iowa House back the plan that uses state gambling taxes to finance an 890-million dollar economic development fund. The money would be handed out to businesses, used to finance worker training and fix up crumbling schools. A 17-member New Economy Council would decide who gets the money, and House Speaker Christopher Rants of Sioux City says if the Governor and Senate go along, the grants could start going out later this year. He says they still have a ways to go to get the votes to put it together.Representative Clarence Hoffman, a republican from Charter Oak, helped craft the plan. Hoffman says it’s the best bipartisan effort he’s seen in the five years he’s been in the legislature.Another facet of the financing calls for the state to put plans in motion to begin collecting sales taxes on Internet sales, a move which Rants says would yield at least 100-million dollars for the state by 2006. Rants says it’s the right thing to do, as he says it creates a level playing field for retailers in Iowa.That new sales tax money would serve as replacement for the gambling taxes that’d be used to finance the economic development fund. Governor Tom Vilsack says he appreciates the bipartisan leadership and calls the plan a “critical step forward.”
