There are now three deals on the table at the statehouse as policymakers struggle for a compromise that would resurrect the “Iowa Values” economic development fund. House Republicans and then Senate Republicans offered deals to democrat Governor Tom Vilsack yesterday, but a spokesman for the Governor said Vilsack will only consider one republican plan. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says that’s a “cop out.”Iverson says “if the governor won’t accept anything” then republicans “are done because the governor keeps telling (them) no.” Republicans in both the House and Senate have abandoned their demand that Vilsack accept across-the-board income tax cuts in exchange for validating the grants which have already been awarded by the Iowa Values Fund board. Senate President Jeff Lamberti, a republican from Ankeny, says statehouse republicans have now offered Vilsack three separate deals.Lamberti says to this point, republican legislators haven’t seen much willingness to compromise from Vilsack. House Speaker Christopher Rants, a republican from Sioux City, says House Republicans are giving up on across-the-board income tax cuts, too, but want business reforms and a business tax break instead. Rants says Vilsack has talked a lot lately about governing in the middle, and Rants says the House Republican plan is “the middle ground, compromise proposal.” Governor Vilsack is on vacation this week, but lawmakers expect to have a meeting with him sometime next week.
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