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The plan includes some desirable reforms that need not have come at the expense of essential public services that inevitably will have to be cut in the face of revenue losses. It also omits reforms that could enhance Iowa tax fairness. 

Economic benefits would result — perhaps more — if the penny sales tax dedicated to school infrastructure spending were not diverted, as the Governor proposes, to other purposes.

Legislators must decide if a boon to specific Iowans is more important than improving the lives of all Iowans with better funding of schools and other priorities with revenue otherwise lost.

The big winners would be those with the highest incomes.

Designed to support start-up companies to do research, this costly program primarily benefits very large companies, with little scrutiny.

Whether we are looking at the entire range of taxes that fall on businesses or just the corporate income tax, the fact is that business taxes in Iowa are low.

Public investments require public funding. And therein lies the rub. A continual diet of tax cuts deprives state and local governments of the ability to adequately fund public services.

Iowa lawmakers must recognize the long-term impact of tax cuts on spending choices. Past choices will force future legislatures to lower investments on critical services on which economic growth depends.

States ranked better by ALEC for their policies actually have done worse economically.