Senate resolution would let Iowans vote on tax increases

Just before their long debate over the state budget, the Senate passed a resolution that calls for letting Iowans decide whether major tax increases go through. If the amendment’s approved, any sales or income tax hike of more than 45 million dollars would have to get the approval of a majority of Iowans after it clears the legislature. Senator Larry McKibben, a republican from Marshalltown, is a lead architect of G-O-P tax policy. McKibben says some people have asked him why republicans are pushing the “People’s Right to Vote Amendment.” He says it’s because Vilsack proposed “the largest tax increase in the history of the state of Iowa.” McKibben says it’s an appropriate line of debate in the upcoming election — a debate he says he looks forward to. Senator Neil Schuerer, a republican from Amana, agrees that tax policy is uppermost in voters’ minds. Schuerer says Iowans need to ability to vote to say whether they’ll continue “to be taxed to death.” But others like Senator Maggie Tinsman, a republican from Davenport, say legislators are elected to make the tough decisions about tax policy, and when times are tough, lawmakers sometimes have to rise above the idea that “majority rules.” Tinsman says folks need to remember “what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.”