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Argument for eliminating business tax credits rather than making budget cuts

March 25, 2009 By

Labor leaders and consumer advocates say the legislature should consider eliminating a host of state tax credits before slashing the state budget.

A Department of Revenue report shows tax credits have increased nearly five-fold since 2001. Lana Ross of the Iowa Community Action Association says that amounts to half a billion dollars in taxes that could or should have been paid to the state, and it’s no wonder the state can’t afford to provide some services to the poor.

"We need to figure out a way in reviewing all of the revenue-generating ideas to get more money into the state to maintain the services that help working families," Ross says.

Victor Elias of the Iowa Child and Family Policy Center is urging legislators to review tax credits for businesses before cutting more deeply into programs that help the state’s youngest citizens.  "We’ve heard a lot about the need to tighten our belts, but I do have one thing to tell you," Elias said to reporters during a news conference at the statehouse. "It’s hard to tighten your belt when you’re wearing a diaper. The children of Iowa are not going to stop growing because we’re having a fiscal crisis. They’re not going to stop needing health care. They’re not going to stop needing early education programs."

Elias is especially critical of the research and activities tax credit for businesses. According to Elias, Iowa businesses have escaped paying $265 million in taxes to the state over the past 24 years because of that credit.

Iowa Federation of Labor president Ken Sagar is critical of cuts in the state workforce.  "It seems that our only response in these difficult times is to cut the resources that are necessary to make sure that public workers — those folks who take care of unemployed workers, injured workers (and) make sure that workplaces are safe — that’s an unreasonable response in our estimation," Sagar said.

Speakers at this morning’s news conference also questioned the wide array of sales tax exemptions in Iowa. For instance, Iowans who pay for repairs to their personal airplane don’t pay sales taxes, and those who get a massage don’t pay sales taxes either.

 

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Cancer Society asks that smoking cessation programs be spared

March 25, 2009 By

Leaders of the American Cancer Society’s Iowa chapter are urging state lawmakers to spare smoking cessation and prevention programs from budget cuts. However, legislative leaders warn it may be time to eliminate some state programs.

Peggy Huppert, Iowa government affairs director for the Cancer Society, says she always gets nervous when she hears lawmakers talk about killing entire programs. Huppert says, "We know we’ll have to take some cuts but we ask that it not be more than our fair share."

The state now spends about $13-million a year on tobacco control, which funds everything from anti-smoking advertising for teens to nicotine patches and gum for adults.  Huppert says getting rid of cessation funding in particular would be unfair, especially since lawmakers voted in recent years to raise the tobacco tax and to ban smoking in public places.

"We’ve made it more expensive, we’ve made it more difficult, now we have to be there to help people quit," she says. Studies find the number of smokers in Iowa is falling, yet 4,000 Iowans die every year from tobacco-related illnesses. Huppert says the agency needs to continue its efforts.

She says "Sometimes we hear, ‘Well, you’ve had all this success, what more do we have to do?’ Well, we have had a lot of success, but 80-percent of smokers want to quit and a lot of smokers are low-income and they can’t afford cessation products on their own."

Huppert says the adult smoking rate in Iowa has dropped to 14% but the youth rate is still at 23%, which she says bolsters the agency’s case for continued funding.  

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With: , ,

"Most Wanted" fugitive found in Boone tattoo shop

March 25, 2009 By

One of the country’s “most wanted” fugitives was working in downtown Boone — until Tuesday. Brandon Cheville, who also went by the name “Suicide”, faces federal drug dealing and racketeering charges which were filed in California last fall.

Authorities say he’s a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang who eluded federal agents as they tried to dismantle the gang back in October through a series of raids and arrests.

This past November, Cheville was featured on the America’s Most Wanted TV show on the FOX network. Cheville was working at a tatoo artist at a shop in downtown Boone that had just opened in the past week. Authorities walked in the shop yesterday; he didn’t resist arrest. He’s in federal custody now.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Weather Service issues report on Cass County tornadoes

March 25, 2009 By

Officials with the National Weather Service toured Cass County on Tuesday in the aftermath of Monday’s severe storm. The Weather service says two E-F-zero tornadoes touched down in the southeastern part of the county.

According to their final damage and incident report issued late Tuesday afternoon, the event began at around 8:10 P.M., from around three-miles east-southeast of Lyman, to about two-miles west of Cumberland, and then another short track from about two-miles south of Wiota.

The Weather Service typically rates tornados on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with an E-F Zero packing winds of 65-to 85-miles per hour. Winds from the twisters that hit Cass County peaked at 85-miles per hour, and they left a path anywhere from 25-to 50-yards wide.

The first tornado tracked for about five miles, while the second lasted for only about a mile. No injuries were reported. Damage was primarily limited to a roof, some grain bins, outbuildings and trees.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Weather

Average yearly child care bill more than tuition at Iowa, ISU, UNI

March 25, 2009 By

A researcher who conducted a year-long study of child care in Iowa says more parents are struggling to pay for child care so they can keep working.

Lily French, a research associate with the Iowa Policy Project, says child care costs are going up at a pace that’s higher than the inflation rate. "In Iowa, the average annual cost of center-based infant care is $7360," French says. "This is actually 33 percent of the median income for single-mother families with children under 18 and, more importantly, is higher than the average tuition at Iowa’s Regent universities."

Since child care in Iowa is more expensive than sending a kid to college at Iowa, Iowa State or U.N.I., French and others at the Iowa Policy Project argue state policymakers should expand child care assistance to low-income working families. "We have found that child care assistance allows parents to work more hours, to sustain employment longer to earn higher wages and to rely less on other social programs, including welfare," she says.

According to French, the greatest return comes from analyzing how a child from a low-income family does after they’ve been in enrolled at a "quality" child care center. "These children have greater success in school. They have a reduced need for special education. They attain higher graduation rates, higher employment and earnings. They have better health outcomes and less welfare dependency lower crime rates," French says. "All of these positive outcomes from children actually result in reduced state spending and higher tax revenue over the course of these children’s lives."

According to French, her report will soon be posted on  the Iowa Policy Project website.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Guttenberg residents upset over firing of police chief

March 25, 2009 By

Residents of an northeast Iowa town are asking for an explanation after the city council fired the police chief. On a 4 to 1 vote, the Guttenberg City Council voted Tuesday to terminate police chief George Morteo’s contract.

Dozens of Morteo’s supporters packed the special meeting. Many called for the resignation of Mayor Jim Solomon, who made the motion to dismiss Morteo based on his "unacceptable performance." Solomon declined to elaborate, but said he feels it’s in the "best interest of taxpayers."

Morteo claims he has no idea why he was fired. "I was told poor performance, that’s all that I’m aware of," Morteo said. Morteo has been the city’s police chief since 2001. The Iowa DCI recently started looking into a case of missing cash from an evidence room at the Guttenberg Police Department.

A spokesperson for the DCI declined to released further details about the case. 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government

Electrolux lays off more workers in Webster City

March 25, 2009 By

More layoffs have been announced at Hamilton County’s largest employer. Electrolux Home Products announced that 129 people will face temporary layoffs at the washer and dryer plant in Webster City effective this Monday, March 30. With this latest announcement, 369 people have been laid off since at Electrolux since last November.

Company spokesman Tony Evans blames continued weak demand and the transition of the front load laundry products from the plant. It was two years ago, in February, 2007, that Electrolux announced it would move 700 jobs from the Webster City plant to a washer and dryer production facility to Mexico.

The current employment at the Webster City Electrolux plant is at 1,149. A few years ago the plant employed some 1,900 workers. 

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:
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