Republican Senators have “test marketed” their ideas by polling Iowans, and the primary result may be the death of the proposal to abolish state income taxes for Iowans under the age of 30. Senate Co-Leader Stewart Iverson, a republican from Dows, was surprised that only six percent of the 500 Iowans they questioned liked the proposal.Iverson says the “under 30″ proposal created a great deal of discussion. He says folks “literally around the world latched onto the idea and said ‘What about this?’” But apparently the idea didn’t fly with Iowans. “It’s kind of the good news/bad news type thing but the other thing is that’s just the reality of it,” Iverson says. Iverson says the most favorable poll response was for another one of the republican senators’ ideas — giving businesses a tax credit for each new job created. In case you wondered, Iverson says republican senators often turn to pollsters to see how their ideas are selling with the public. “We want to know how some of these things get interpreted out there,” Iverson says. “All of us in the political business do polling for time to time. That’s not an unusual thing.”

A southeast Iowa legislator is proposing widescale changes in Iowa’s tax system — ranging from making Iowans pay sales taxes on food to erasing the state’s tax on corporate profits. Senator David Miller, a republican from Fairfield, admits his plan would raise 300 MILLION more dollars in state taxes, but he says it accomplishes the overall goal of simplifying the tax code. “I guess I’d like to start out by saying as I’ve looked at the tax system, you know you hear the words archaeic, unfair, confusing and uncompetitive and you know, it really is,” Miller says. “And I think what we need to do is just look at some totally new concepts.” Miller would set a flat percentage rate for property taxes, and set just three state income tax rates. In addition, he would only let Iowans who drive their pick-up trucks for business or farm work pay the cheap 70-dollar license plate fee. Everyone else — like city dwellers who drive a pick-up — would have to pay a much higher fee, similar to what minivans pay. Miller concedes his ideas offend many interest groups who’ve carved out tax exemptions, but he is asking his fellow senators to give his ideas a look. “Don’t shoot a sitting duck. At least let it fly a little bit,” Miller says. Miller suggests he ought to have asked some local soldiers if he could “borrow a helmet and a bullet-proof vest.” Miller says his idea of getting rid of the corporate income tax would make Iowa much more attractive to businesses, as only four other states do not charge a corporate income tax. Senate Co-Leader Stewart Iverson, a republican from Dows, says Miller’s tax ideas will “go into the mix.”

About 80 kids from three Des Moines-area Christian schools lobbied legislators today, asking for passage of a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. Chuck Hurley, a spokesman for the Marriage Matters organization, coached the kids. “They lobbied their legislator and learned a lot about civics,” he says. “They got a great reception.” Hurley says he urged the kids to consider serving in public office once they become adults. “We also showed them how a bill becomes law and they loved it.” Marriage Matters held a reception over the noonhour and handed out two-hundred pieces of wedding cake. The students came from the Des Moines Christian Academy, Grandview Park Baptist Church School in Des Moines and the Ankeny Christian Academy.

Governor Tom Vilsack’s most difficult sales job in the area of education is turning out to be his call for more state spending on pre-school programs. Some republicans are reluctant to give state financial rewards to parents who dump their kids off at preschool while doing nothing to reward the parent who stays home with their child. Mike Connolly, a democrat from Dubuque, is co-chair of the Senate Education Committee and he downplays the difference with republicans. “I think we can look for a difference (with republicans),” Connolly says. “What we’re really looking for is common ground and I think we can find it.”Connolly says democrats would use some of the 39 MILLION dollars worth of preschool spending Vilsack on programs that teach parents how to parent. “We believe the mother and the family is the child’s first and best teacher,” Connolly says. “We want to support that.” There are 25 democrats and 25 republicans in the state Senate.

The Iowa Congressman who’ll lead House debate on the federal budget says republicans have not abandoned their call for balanced budgets. The budget President Bush has proposed calls for more deficit spending — and Bush’s budget plan is one-third larger than the first federal budget he proposed in 2001. Congressman Jim Nussle, a republican from Manchester, is chairman of the House Budget Committee. Nussle says the September 11th attack and the war on terror are the primary causes of the ballooning budget deficits. He says it will take a while to “dig out” of the deficit, but he says that’s republicans’ ultimate goal. “The tough news, of course, is no one knows exactly what the future specifically looks like and as a result exactly what the costs will be,” Nussle says. “As we know them, we’ll include them and I think that’s the best that we can do at this time.” Another wrinkle revealed this week in President Bush’s budget indicates the cost of the new prescription drug benefit for America’s seniors through Medicare will cost taxpayers 720 BILLION dollars in its first decade. That figure is far higher than any previous estimate. “Certainly we understand that the costs will continue to grow,” Nussle says. Medical malpractice reform and a reduction in the general costs of health care are needed to manage the system better, according to Nussle.