An organization that lobbies for lower taxes is launching a campaign to encourage Iowa voters to pass a proposal that would make it more difficult to raise state income taxes in the future.
The proposed amendment to Iowa’s Constitution would require any increase in income taxes on individuals or corporations to get support from two-thirds of legislators. That’s a supermajority. Iowa income taxes may currently be raised by a simple majority of lawmakers.
Iowans for Tax Relief President Chris Hagenow said the group’s goal is to make voters aware that the proposed amendment is on the back of the General Election ballot. “We believe strongly that Iowans support the premise of this amendment, that they support of it being harder to raise their taxes,” Hagenow said, “and they simply need to know what this amendment does.”
During a video conference with Iowa reporters, Hagenow said the amendment would make tax hikes “a last resort” for Iowa lawmakers. The group has set up a website — www.maketaxhikesharder.com — and Hagenow expects the campaign to include radio and tv ads as well as mail sent directly to Iowa voters to educate them about the amendment. “We intend to run a robust paid media campaign heading into the election,” Hagenow said. “…We’re committed to making sure all Iowans know what this does.”
Hagenow told reporters 16 other states have a law or constitutional requirement that income taxes can only be raised by a supermajority vote of lawmakers. The proposed amendment won approval, twice, from Republicans in the Iowa legislature who’ve also moved to lower Iowa’s corporate and income taxes over the past decade. “This legislature over the last 10 years has done a terrific job of holding the line on tax policy, but that’s not to say that is always going to be the case and so this is future proofing,” said Hagenow, a former Majority Leader in the Iowa House. “It’s securing the gains that we’ve made over the last 10 years from what may come because, you know, legislatures may come and go and the political winds may change.”
Governors have no role in the process of presenting proposed constitutional amendments to Iowa voters, but Republican Governor Kim Reynolds is expressing support for the concept in this one. “I think my record would indicate that I align on the side where we need to do everything we can to not raise taxes on people,” Reynolds told reporters after an event in Ankeny, “and it should be very high threshhold before we ever implement a tax increase.”
Since Reynolds became governor in May of 2017, she has signed legislation to reduce Iowa’s individual income tax, which is now a flat rate of three-point-eight percent, and to lower Iowa’s corporate income tax. State income taxes on retirement income have also been eliminated during her tenure.
Democrats who’ve opposed requiring a supermajority vote in the legislature to raise income taxes say it would worsen a state budget crisis by limiting lawmakers ability to respond.