DES MOINES – Liberals wanted an Iowa economic development board to just say “no” to an Egyptian company seeking $25 million more in tax breaks to go along with hundreds of millions already promised for a fertilizer plant in Southeast Iowa that is under construction.
The liberals pointed to an independent poll released last week by liberal political group Progress Iowa and Citizens for a Healthy Iowa showed strong opposition to the continuation of tax credits for Orascom, an Egyptian fertilizer company that is building a plant in Lee county, Iowa. The Public Policy Polling survey found that 55% oppose continuing the $25 million tax break as planned.
However, the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) approved giving Orascom another $25 million in tax breaks at their board meeting Friday morning, July 18th.
Leading up to that meeting, liberals railed against the governor and the massive tax breaks for Orascom.
Democratic State Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City, the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, warned Iowa taxpayers that the Branstad Administration was on the verge of spending $25 million more on Iowa’s “worst economic development deal ever.”
“Orascom has already taken Iowa taxpayers to the cleaners and we have no legal obligation to throw more good money after bad,” said Bolkcom. “That money should be used to help Iowans instead.”
Dem’s say that Governor Branstad personally led the secret negotiations which gave Orascom more than half a billion dollars in federal, state, and local incentives in exchange for creating 165 jobs in Lee County. They claim Branstad became convinced he was fighting Illinois for the fertilizer plant, overlooking the fact that $300 million in federal flood development subsidies were available only at the Iowa sites. Orascom’s success at negotiating such generous incentives was the major reason Governor Branstad was named the “2013 Foreign Direct Investment Politician of the Year” during the 10th Annual World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment in Shanghai, China.
“Governor Branstad has been too eager to give away our hard earned tax dollars at the expense of middle class Iowa families,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. “The state has already promised Orascom $82 million, and they are set to receive hundreds of millions in tax breaks for a plant they were going to build anyway.”
Sinovic called on the IEDA “to stop this economic madness and restore fiscal sanity to the state of Iowa at their board meeting tomorrow.” His plea failed, as the board approved the the new tax breaks.
“After Governor Branstad’s vetoes of REAP and other conservation funding passed with bipartisan support in the legislature, his priorities are very clear: no to programs that will preserve and protect the health of Iowa’s natural resources, and yes to expensive and wasteful tax giveaways for foreign corporations,” said Mark Langgin, spokesperson for Citizens for a Healthy Iowa.
Orascom is based in Cairo, Egypt and employs more than 40,000 people in 20 countries.
[poll random]
