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.
Responding to reports that victims of the 2008 floods who claimed certain deductions and exemptions on their state taxes will likely be forced to pay them back, Gov. Chet Culver said Wednesday he would do everything in his power to correct the problem as soon as possible.
Culver said he has directed the Department of Revenue to provide him with “any and all options that may be implemented by executive action this calendar year.”
Additionally, he will speak with legislative leaders from both parties about fully resolving the tax issues during the 2010 session.
“The last thing our state tax laws should do is burden those who were victims of last year’s historic floods and storms, and the issue of adopting federal tax law changes to Iowa should be addressed,” Culver said in a statement.
The federal tax code was altered in 2008 to allow disaster victims to itemize all of their losses and deduct them. The Iowa Department of Revenue advised tax preparers to file as though Iowa law had changed as well, since lawmakers appeared likely to alter state taxes to mirror the change to the federal code. However, Iowa never made the change, leaving those who claimed the exemptions on their tax returns forced to return of part of the refunds they received.
State Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, told the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Rob Boshart that the changes were not made because it would have cost $56 million during an already difficult budget year.
Republican Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, who is running for his party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2010, called on state government to give those effected by this issue “a tax amnesty from having to pay the tax collector,” since their decision was based on the “faulty advice” of the Department of Revenue.
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