Bill Dotzler

A proposal to boost a state tax credit for businesses that participate in a state-run investment pool for start-up companies has been resurrected.

Senator Bill Dotzler says last year legislators voted to create the Iowa Innovation Fund and grant a tax credit for investors.

“We really didn’t have any takers for that because of it being a new fund and no fund history and being at 20 percent, it just wasn’t working,” Dotzler says.

This afternoon, the Senate Ways and Means Committee approved a bill that increases the tax credit to 50 percent and makes it transferable. The bill requires disclosure of that transfer to state officials. Dotzler says that will hopefully prevent a repeat of the state film tax credit fiasco.

“We were very careful in looking at the problems that we experienced in the past to make sure that we had the accountability in this,” Dotzler says.

The bill must next be considered by the full Senate. Earlier this year the House endorsed the idea of increasing the tax credit — all the way up to 100 percent, but did not require any public disclosure of the transaction.

The 2012 legislative session could be in its final hours — but lawmakers have been struggling to reach final agreements on some politically-complicated issues. Dotzler offers this observation:

“It’s the good-bye tour that never ends,” Dotzler says.

Governor Branstad met privately this afternoon with legislative leaders, but there’s no word on whether a property tax reform deal has been resurrected.

The defeat of a property tax relief plan in the Iowa Senate last night could be the end of the effort to craft a compromise on the issue.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha has been the lead Republican negotiator. “What I must say is as we’re coming here in the final hours, my optimism is not as high as it has been,” Paulsen told reporters.

Lawmakers are hoping to complete the work of the 2012 legislative session soon, perhaps later today, and Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs is offering a blunt assessment of the prospects for property tax relief.

“It is hard to tell at this point,” Gronstal told reporters.

Gronstal said he has offered “several other ideas” to Republicans in an effort to resurrect the issue.

“I’m open to considering some other approaches, but I’m basically getting stonewalled back from them,” Gronstal said.

Senator Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, suggested the plans Senate Democrats have offered won’t provide “meaningful” tax relief.

“Who are we fooling?” Feenstra said. “Our businesses see through this.”

Another reform effort focused on redesigning the way mental health services are provided to poor Iowans hit a stumbling block late yesterday. Counties have been paying to provide mental health care to indigent patients, but legislators want to have the state take over the system, and set up regional hubs for the services to ensure equal access to urban and rural residents. The final details on that plan apparently have been hammered out by a 10-member committee of legislators today.

Another group of 10 lawmakers has been trying to reach an agreement on the budget for the departments of health and human services, but the panel cannot resolve a dispute over abortion policy.

Republican Governor Terry Branstad has issued a sort of public ultimatum for Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal. Branstad talked with reporters in Decorah this afternoon about the property tax reform plan that cleared the Republican-led House Monday night but appears to be going nowhere in the Senate.

“If the Senate fails to do what Senator Gronstal has agreed to do with us, then I think there’s a good reason to change control of the Senate to somebody that will,” Branstad said in Decorah. “I believe the voters of Iowa will be very angry at Senate Democrats.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen — the top Republican in the legislature — has said the House Republicans’ bill “conforms” to the agreement he and Branstad struck with Gronstal and serves as the Republicans’ final offer. Branstad seems to share those sentiments.

“If the Senate Democrats fail to take it up or pass it, I think the onus is going to be on them for failing to do what they promised they were going to do and we’re going to hold them accountable,” Branstad said in Decorah.

On Monday and today — in a span of about 26 hours, Governor Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds held five town hall meetings in eastern Iowa to tout the need for property tax reform, concluding with a town hall at the Hotel Winneshiek in Decorah at 12:30 this afternoon.

By Darin Svenson, KDEC, Decorah