Statement by Senator Joe Bolkcom, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee: “I don’t how the Governor can sleep tonight after vetoing a bi-partisan tax cut that would have helped 240,000 working Iowa families making less than $45,000 a year.” |Statement by Senator Joe Bolkcom, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee
“I don’t how the Governor can sleep tonight after vetoing a bi-partisan tax cut that would have helped 240,000 working Iowa families making less than $45,000 a year. He is thumbing his nose at his own party and at middle-class Iowans struggling to recover from the national recession.
“Every penny would have been spent at Main Street businesses, and it would have helped Iowa recover from the deep national recession.
“The Governor is sending a clear message that he will only support tax cuts that give away hundreds of millions of Iowans’ hard earned money to out-of-state corporations and the richest handful of Iowans.
“In his veto message, Governor Branstad says “…it is my desire to approach tax policy in a comprehensive and holistic manner.”
“This excuse doesn’t hold water. The governor has already signed a tax cut for Iowa’s wealthiest citizens, one worth almost exactly as much to them as what the working families tax cut would have provided to a quarter of a million Iowans.* And today he approved the section of Senate File 209 that creates the 60 million dollar Taxpayers Trust Fund.
“Let’s stop wasting time. Governor, are you or are you not in favor of the tax cut for 240,000 working families that every member of the Iowa Legislature has already voted for?”
* Senate File 512 was signed by Governor Branstad on April 12. This tax cut provides $13.1 million dollars to Iowa individuals making at least $83,000 and Iowa married couples with a joint income of more than $166,000. The increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit which the governor vetoed would have cost $14.7 million and would have benefited 240,000 Iowa taxpayers making less than $45,000.
