Iowa voters will decide in November whether to approve a constitutional amendment that would require two-thirds of the members of the Iowa House and Senate to approve future increases in Iowa income taxes. Two groups have unveiled websites as part of what both describe as educational campaigns about the proposal. Chris Hagenow is President of Iowans for Tax Relief.
A coalition of 10 groups that oppose the amendment have created their own website — www.voteNOIowa.info. Anne Discher, the Executive Director of Common Good Iowa, says the amendment will not make it harder to raise other taxes, like the sales tax, property taxes or the gas tax.
Sixteen states, including California, require some sort of a supermajority for raising or imposing taxes. Hagenow says that shows requiring a higher vote tally doesn’t make it impossible to raise income taxes.
The proposed supermajority threshold means 67 of the 100 members of the Iowa House and 34 of the 50 state senators would have to agree to raise income taxes. Joshua Brown, a middle school teacher who’s President of the Iowa State Education Association, says the amendment would make it harder to fix a broken state budget.
Iowans for Tax Relief is planning a paid media campaign in support of the amendment. The coalition that opposes the amendment says they have yard signs to distribute and a strategy to spread their message online, but paid advertising is a stretch goal.
