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The CEO wanted to be a job creator, but discovered his board of directors and shareholders wanted him to focus on profits, which meant hiring as few people as possible. Workers, it seemed, could be a pain.

The property-tax reform package will be costly and will challenge cities, counties and schools to deliver what Iowans have come to expect.

Long-term impacts of late deals may challenge local services; EITC, Medicaid expansions positive steps IOWA CITY, Iowa (May 23, 2013) — The nonpartisan Iowa Fiscal Partnership today released the following statement about the close of the Iowa General Assembly 2013 Read more

Property-tax package combines EITC boost with challenges to local services IOWA CITY, Iowa (May 16, 2013) — The nonpartisan Iowa Fiscal Partnership today released the following statement from Peter Fisher about the Iowa House-Senate conference committee report on SF295. This Read more

IFP Backgrounder Helping to Fill Gap between Income and Basic Needs for Working Families Policy Brief (2-pg PDF) April 5, 2013 The Iowa General Assembly is once again considering expanding Iowa’s meager Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The Cedar Rapids Read more

In over 200,000 Iowa households, working families are helped by the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. Iowa’s state EITC extends the benefit and lessens the likelihood that a low-income family will have to pay state income tax when they don’t make enough to pay federal income tax. The state EITC is 7 percent of the federal credit, and it is refundable.

Local government officials are determined to force development to happen when it can’t stand on its own, creating oversupply that hurts existing businesses. Or the private sector happily rakes in all the new incentive cash to do something it would have done anyway.

Both proposals are costly, so they affect state services to residents, and both play to a myth about Iowa taxes on business, which are below business taxes in most states already.

Tax expenditures have the same overall impact on state budget choices as do direct appropriations.

The world is upside down when state subsidies of business are presumed to be essential, and when a leading newspaper criticizes those who dare to question it.