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 incomes 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 says the group’s goal is to make voters aware that the proposed amendment is on the back of the General Election ballot.
Hagenow says 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.
The group has set up a website www.maketaxhikesharder.com and Hagenow expects the campaign to include radio and t-v ads as well as mail sent directly to Iowa voters to educate them about the amendment. 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.
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.
