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Draft constitutional amendment would restrict income tax increases • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- March']
Date: 2024-03
The Iowa House took a step toward amending the state constitution Tuesday to require a two-thirds majority vote of legislators for passing future tax increases.
House Joint Resolution 2006, passed 61-35, would set a higher bar for passing legislation to raise individual or corporate income tax rates.
The constitutional amendment, introduced by Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton and Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, originally also included a measure to enshrine a flat income tax rate in Iowa’s constitution, but these measures have separated. The flat tax proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 2003, was approved by the Senate Ways and Means committee a week ago.
Democrats opposed the measure in the House on Tuesday. Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, said when the state faces “budget crunches in the future,” the proposed amendment would mean that Iowa lawmakers will realistically have two options to make up for deficits: cutting spending in areas like public education and Medicaid, or increasing non-income taxes.
“Now what do we see in other states with very low income tax?” Zabner said. “Mississippi, we see a grocery tax. Taxes on the poorest people in a state trying to feed their kids. I don’t want to see a grocery tax in the state of Iowa. I don’t think it’s responsible to pass a constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds of a vote to increase the income tax when we don’t have the same in place for the grocery tax.”
Iowa currently does not have a sales tax on groceries or prescription drugs. Zabner said lawmakers would only need a simple majority to raise sales taxes to make up for budget shortfalls. That would mean the state would be putting a higher burden on “the poorest Iowans, either by taking away services they rely on or increasing regressive taxes,” he said.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, said the measure would prevent lawmakers from responsibly responding to future needs that arise in the state.
“A small number of 33 representatives or 16 senators could prevent the majority from enacting sound fiscal policy to manage Iowa’s way through a recession, floods or a pandemic,” Wilburn said. “This minority could use its veto power — essentially, what you’re doing is giving veto power — to extract special favors or projects. It’s happened in other states, it happens in Congress.”
Kaufmann, floor manager for the resolution, said 17 other states have similar measures in their constitutions, including Democrat-led states like California, Washington and Delaware.
“This policy before us has been in the constitution of bright blue states — the sky did not fall, every example of dystopian future did not happen,” Kaufmann said. “… If this bill is good enough for the home state of President Biden, if it’s good enough for the home state of Vice President Kamala Harris, if it’s good enough for Governor Newsom, and if it’s good enough for Senate Speaker Pro Tem Patty Murray, it’s damn good enough for Iowa.”
If passed by the Senate this year, the resolution would have to be approved by the next General Assembly and then by a majority of general-election voters before the state constitution is amended.
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