The global business center for DuPont Pioneer will be in Johnston, Iowa, but DuPont and Dow Chemical executives have decided Delaware will be home to the corporate headquarters for the world’s largest seed company.
Bill Dix of Shell Rock, the Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, suggests this should be a wake-up call for state policymakers.
“Really shines a beacon on the fact that we are a very high-tax state,” Dix says, “one of the highest taxing states in the country.”
The State of Iowa is providing the company $14 million in research tax credits for the retention of up to 500 high-paying “R-and-D” jobs in Johnston. Dix says this corporate decision shows it’s time for a discussion of eliminating the state income tax.
“We tend to have had a policy of looking at what we can do to pick winners and losers and bring certain industries to our state and to some degree that has been successful,” Dix says. “…The states that are growing the fastest are the states that recognize that an income tax is a tax on productivity, hard-work, investment.”
Dix made his comments during an appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program. Dix is an advocate of eliminating the state income tax for both individuals and corporations. The state income tax on corporations ranges from six to 12 percent and is based on how profitable the company is.