Utility tax creates rift among Republicans

There’s a republican rift over your utility bill.Republicans in the Iowa House yesterday voted down the idea of permanently removing the state sales tax on your heating bills, but republicans AND democrats in the Iowa Senate want to gradually phase out the sales tax on electricity, heating oil, propane and natural gas over the next five years. The Senate will vote on the issue today. Republican Senator Larry McKibben of Marshalltown. He says they’ve discussed the issue the past four years. Representative Steve Soukup of Dougherty is among the Republicans who ridicule the Senate’s plan to gradually eliminate the sales tax on utilities. He says it does nothing for the high bills and the real benefits come five years down the road.McKibben disagrees, saying there won’t be any near term end to the problem of high utility taxes.Also yesterday, the Senate approved a bill, which would extend 15-million dollars to the state’s low-income heating assistance program. This morning, the Senate will debate the bill, which would allow dove hunting in Iowa.