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.
The controversy surrounding the state’s tax credit program designed to lure film projects to Iowa is just a small part of a much bigger problem, Charles Bruner, co-director of the nonpartisan Iowa Fiscal Partnership, said Wednesday in in Op-Ed published by The Des Moines Register.
Bruner called the state’s tax credits to industry a “boondoggle,” and singled out the film tax credit as a “huge drain on the state treasury as well as a subsidy lacking in common sense.”
From The Register:
Everyone likes a good show, but do Iowa taxpayers really want to foot half the bill for the production of films, or any other business activity? Louisiana recently lost a court case and now owes film companies in excess of $260 million for its film credit.
Clearly, Iowa is not alone in being suckered into establishing an excessive film tax credit, but it now needs to act quickly to curb the practice.
Iowa lawmakers need to focus upon making wise investments in education, health, public safety, roads and other infrastructure. They cannot do so if they allow tax breaks like the film tax credit to erode state revenue. They need to end the film credit, and examine other state tax expenditures for their public benefit to the state.
The Iowa Fiscal Partnership, which is a joint initiative of the Iowa Policy Project and the Child and Family Policy Center for analysis of budget and tax policies, has been critical of the state’s use of tax credits and tax incentives to lure business for many years, saying they are a drain on the state’s treasury with limited return on investment for Iowa’s taxpayers. When news broke of the allegations of misconduct in the Film, Television and Video Promotion Program, the group was quick to issue a press release criticizing the program’s lack of transparency and praising Gov. Chet Culver’s decision to suspend the awarding of funds while an investigation is being done.
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