Rants says older Iowans likely leaving to avoid income taxes on retirement

New Census data indicates 25-hundred Iowans over the age of 65 have moved out of the state in the past three years, and House Speaker Christopher Rants, a republican from Sioux City, guesses most of those folks were well-off. Rants says his “hunch” is that most of the 25-hundred seniors who left the state figured out it makes “financial sense” to live in Texas or Florida for six months and one day. That’s the time it takes to establish legal residency in another state and escape paying Iowa income taxes.Rants says it’s time to reduce or eliminate Iowa’s income taxes on retirement savings and pensions, but Rants says since Governor Vilsack opposes such a move, it won’t be debate in the Legislature this year.