Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Allowing a proposed increase to the state’s fuel tax to come to the floor of either chamber of the legislature would be a huge mistake, Gov. Chet Culver said Monday.
Culver said the money Iowa would receive from the recently passed federal stimulus bill, estimated at about $358 million, makes a gas tax increase an even worse idea.
“So I think [legislators are] going to have a very tough time making the case to average Iowans that, given the recession and given the fact that we just received $358 million for road projects, that we need to raise the gas tax right now,” he said.
The governor said he would discuss his opposition with legislative leaders again this week, but once again Culver stopped short of saying he would veto any gas tax increase.
Bills that would increase the state’s fuel tax 4 cents now and another 4 cents in 2010 have been introduced in both the House and Senate Transportation Committees. An 8-cent increase would raise nearly $170 million annually to fund road and bridge projects around the state.
Culver said his proposed $700 million bonding plan is still necessary because most of the projects associated with flood recovery will not be eligible for federal stimulus money. Money from state bonds can also work to enhance a project that receives federal money.
“We have, according to the Department of Transportation, billions of dollars in infrastructure needs we have to address over the next decade or two,” he said. “So while this is a nice down payment on a lot of those infrastructure projects that have been deferred, we have literally billions of dollars in need.”
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