Ethics Board investigates funding of Taxpayers United funding

The state ethics and campaign disclosure board is investigating contributions to a political action committee which mostly finances republican causes. In 1999 and 2000, $119,000 dollars from unnamed trusts was transferred to “Taxpayers United” — the political action committee for Iowans for Tax Relief. Charlie Smithson is legal counsel for the ethics board. He says they’ve never seen contributions in that amount.Smithson says individuals or groups which contribute over 500-dollars to a PAC or a candidate must become a PAC themselves to publicly disclose who they are.Smithson is contacting Iowans for Tax Relief officers about the matter.A spokesman for Iowans for Tax Relief says the 119-thousand dollars in trust contributions were made within the law.