State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat who’s running for governor, says the decline in state tax revenue is even worse than expected.
Sand said it’s a fiscal crisis created by Republican lawmakers who intentionally cut revenue by reducing the state income tax and increased spending on Education Savings Accounts for students attending private schools. During a campaign stop in Manchester yesterday, Sand said Iowans are sick of the direction the state is going in. “The vouchers program itself has a total lack of oversight,” Sand said. “They’re frustrated with a lack of support for public schools. They’re looking at rising costs for their own checkbook.”
During July, August and September, total state tax receipts were down nearly 15% compared to the same quarter last year. If the trend continues, Sand expects the state will have a deficit of over $1 billion. Sand told reporters in Manchester it’s time to reorient state government, so it’s not just serving insiders and special interest groups.
“This is what you get out of 10 years of one party control. If it was 10 years for the other party in total control, you’d have the same issues,” Sand said. “Too much power in too few hands for too long brings corruption. That’s human nature. It’s not partisan.”
Republicans say they planned for the decline in state tax revenue by producing lean state budgets over the past several years and stockpiling a surplus. Governor Reynolds and her fellow Republicans say the tax cut will spur the state economy and tax revenue will rise, but until then they plan to use the surplus to balance the state budget.
(Reporting by Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)