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EITC boost would help families who need it — and economy
Heather Gibney If you imagine a packed Kinnick Stadium on game day you have an idea of how many Iowans were kept out of poverty from 2009 to 2011 thanks to two refundable tax credits. A new...
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Sound budgeting doesn’t include blanket tax credit
Mike Owen This session of the Iowa Legislature offers a tremendous opportunity to move the state forward with a balanced approach — including responsible, fair tax reform and investments in critical...
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How to make Iowa’s tax system more unfair
David Osterberg How odd that a new proposal to make Iowa’s tax system more regressive and unfair comes out just when new evidence shows it already is unfair. HF3 would make the Iowa income tax rate...
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Stagnant objections to minimum wage increases
Heather Gibney Dialogue about increasing the minimum wage is finally emerging in 2013. President Obama proposed an increase in the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour in his State of the Union address, and...
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Flat tax plan legalizes cheating on Iowa taxes
Peter Fisher The Iowa House of Representatives will soon take up a bill that would legalize cheating on your Iowa income taxes. While that isn’t the intent, it will certainly be the effect, at least...
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The limits of transparency
Peter Fisher You can’t fix problems you can’t find. That’s why transparency is so important in public policy and especially spending through the tax code. You would never find some of this information...
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Iowa’s decline in job-based health insurance
The Cedar Rapids Gazette today offered an interesting look at the question of where Iowans get their insurance. It’s less and less something that comes through employment. And when the costs of...
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Looking past the distractions on job numbers
Colin Gordon Each month about this time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics updates its regional and state job numbers. It’s an important monthly scorecard, an opportunity to measure the state’s...
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Some bad ideas never die
Peter Fisher The Iowa House today proved that bipartisanship is no guarantor of good policy. On a vote of 87-9, the House approved HF 641, which would authorize a new and wasteful incentive program...
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Will outrage translate into policy?
Mike Owen Oh, the outrage. Apple Inc., is (gasp!) working the federal tax code to its advantage, exploiting loopholes in the code to legally avoid paying taxes. OK, but we’ve heard it all before. Many...
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Iowa’s Recession: The Movie
Colin Gordon OK, it’s not likely to offer much competition for World War Z or the Hangover 3, but this short video does provide a compelling look at Iowa’s slide into recession, and slow progress to...
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Who benefits? No doubts — the ‘1 Percent’
Peter Fisher For whose benefit is this country run? The events of the past 10 years should have erased any doubts about the answer to that question. Let’s recap for a minute just what happened. First,...
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Smokey and the Jobs
The controversy over speeding by the Governor’s SUV prompted one columnist [1] to tinker with the lyrics for the theme song from Smokey and the Bandit (the Burt Reynolds film in which a couple of...
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Asleep at the Switch in Iowa
Mike Owen Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline have caught us sleeping in Iowa. Closing a loophole that lets those big online travel companies collect taxes on only part of sales taxes due on hotel room...
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Why SNAP matters: Wages aren’t always enough
Mike Owen It’s really quite amazing what kind of arguments people will use to beat up poor people. Such an example is in the comments section of a story in today’s Des Moines Register about the debate...
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We promise: We won’t cook burgers
Mike Owen So, McDonald’s and VISA have teamed up to tell low-wage workers how to make ends meet. We have a proposal for McDonald’s and VISA: Leave economic and policy analysis to us, and we won’t...
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Hyperbole Alert: The drumbeat to cut corporate taxes in Iowa
Mike Owen TWELVE PERCENT! The figure practically screams at you, even when it’s not in all caps, when the conversation comes to corporate tax rates in Iowa. Here’s the thing: It’s not a real number....
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The problem with political goals on jobs
Mike Owen This week we were treated (?) to the latest bizarre count provided by Governor Branstad’s administration on how many jobs he has created. The Governor is claiming 160,600 jobs already created...
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Why, again, would it make sense to cut SNAP?
Mike Owen This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will be considering severe cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Already, SNAP benefits...
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Why is the dream fading?
David Osterberg “American dream is fading for middle class” I took this headline from the October 7 Cedar Rapids Gazette. You can imagine what the article says — that many Americans’ faith in a...
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