In Governor Culver’s address this week on the Condition of the State, I was pleased to hear his promise to not burden Iowa’s families with tax increases.  Unfortunately, his record on taxes says otherwise.

Last fall, Governor Culver’s ten percent across the board cut would have crippled Iowa’s schools had it affected their spending authority, but since it only slashed the funding they receive from the state, it saddles the property taxpayer with a loss that must be backfilled.  The Non-Partisan Legislative Services Agency estimates this property tax increase for the next fiscal year at $268.9 million.

We must also be vigilant against other tax increases which creep into our code through new fees and charges that prevent Iowans from keeping more of their hard earned money.

In the past three years, Iowans have had to deal with, and defeat, initiatives such as combined corporate reporting (proposal would cost Iowans an additional $25 million), the “bottle deposit bill” (proposal would cost Iowans an additional $21.5 million), and a repeal of federal deductibility (proposal would cost Iowans an additional $600 million).  Fortunately, those proposals have failed so far.  Unfortunately, others passed and Iowans are financially responsible for more government spending.

I promise to fight against any measure that perpetuates this pseudo-balancing act.  As House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen stated in his opening comments on the session, “House Republicans will not support any budget that spends more money than it takes in. Balancing the budget is not good enough if it’s on the backs of the property taxpayer.”

As always, please let me know if you have any ideas on how we can save money and protect the taxpayers of Iowa.

The last bill passed in the House was SF 478, the standing appropriations bill which appropriated over $450 million dollars from various state budget funds.  The standings bill also served as a catch-all bill for a wide range of policies that did not survive the regular committee process.  Last-minute items included a 5% city franchise fee on utility bills, an interim study committee on puppy mills, and increased fees for out-of-state deer hunting licenses.

A lot of high-profile legislation failed in the final days.  No labor bills were brought forward and there was no change to federal deductibility.  I will continue to oppose forced unionization, mandated wage rates and any attempt to take away most Iowans’ largest tax deduction.  Majority leadership also blocked all attempts to allow the people of Iowa a vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Despite falling tax revenues, economic trouble and massive overspending in previous years, this budget will be the largest in our state’s history.  To facilitate this extra spending, the receipt of federal stimulus money was used to “backfill” many of our ongoing spending obligations.  While this avoids making some painful cuts this year, we are facing a much larger budget gap once the stimulus money runs out.  We will soon be looking out over the cliff of a budget disaster.

We must do a better job of prioritizing our spending.  I will continue to offer suggestions of how we can fully fund the most essential functions of government while protecting Iowa taxpayers.

It continues to be a great honor to serve.  Over the interim, I look forward to spending time in the community, listening to your thoughts and ideas on how government can better reflect the will of the people.