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Forget the adage: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In the Iowa Legislature, it’s different: “We broke it, so let’s break it some more, and then make sure nobody can fix it.”That in short is the picture of tax-cut proposals gaining steam in Iowa.

Legislators are elected for a two- or four-year term that expires. Lawmakers in office today have no rightful claim to tie the hands of their successors. The same goes for voters.

Despite encouraging wage gains in the last couple of years, 1 in 6 working households in Iowa cannot meet basic needs on their earnings alone. Over half of single parents are falling short, according to the latest edition of the Cost of Living in Iowa from Common Good Iowa.

Iowa's most lucrative business tax credit gave away nearly $85 million in 2023 to companies, mostly to very large companies and much as checks to companies that paid no state income tax. It's part of a longtime trend, but reforms may paint a different picture in 2025.

The two-part income-tax elimination plan introduced in the Iowa Senate would (1) decimate state services such as education and health care, (2) tilt Iowa's overall tax system further in favor of the rich, and (3) defy fundamental democratic principles by demanding two-thirds approval of any cleanup of the tax-cut mess.

Children of color in Iowa fare at best modestly better than their peers nationwide — and far more poorly than their white Iowa peers, according to Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2024 Race for Results report. These findings reflect failure in Iowa and nationally to equip all children to succeed.

Governor Kim Reynolds is adding ingredients to the 2022 "recipe for disaster" that she and legislators are following in Iowa tax policy. The result will be even worse than previously expected.

Iowa’s upside-down tax system, with the wealthy paying a far lesser share of their income to tax than low- and middle-income families, is about to get worse. New research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows scheduled reductions in personal and corporate income taxes will widen this disparity, while proposals to eliminate state and local income taxes would make Iowa one of the 10 worst states for tax equity.

A time of strong revenues is the right time to use surplus dollars for critical, one-time needs that otherwise are likely to go unmet. Fixing Iowa's $1.35 billion lead-pipe problem is one example of how we can do better for our health and that of future Iowans. Tax cuts don't meet that test.

If Iowa were to eliminate the state personal income tax, as Governor Kim Reynolds and key legislators propose, it would not only wipe out about half of state budget revenues, but overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Iowans. New analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) for Common Good Iowa projects an average tax cut of $60,228 for the top 1 percent of Iowa residents by income, compared to a $1,468 average break in the middle group of earners and only $45 in the lowest one-fifth of earners.