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 future cost of projects currently under contract as part of the tax credit program aimed at enticing filmmakers to work in the state is a little more than $78 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Economic Development.
An earlier report by The Des Moines Register said the cost would be $326 million, but that number includes projects that received initial approval but are not actually under contract with the state, said Erin Seidler, IDED’s public information officer.
Twenty-two projects have completed their contract and have been issued tax credits, totaling a little more than $32 million. An additional 26 projects have entered into contracts with the state to receive the 50 percent tax credit. Gov. Chet Culver has suspended payments of all film tax credits and there is no firm answer if those contracts will be honored. If they are, it will cost the state around $78 million.
The state gave initial approval to another 109 projects, but no contract has been entered into and no tax credits have been promised, Seidler said. That total makes up the largest portion of the tax liability cited by The Register, at nearly $253 million, and the state will not be liable for those projects.
“The Register is totaling the potential tax liability by using projects that are both under contract and ones that have simply made it past the first hurdle but are not under contract,” she said. “So that figure is not accurate.”
The total cost of tax credits is based on estimated spending projections for the projects in Iowa. If all 157 projects that are completed, under contract or approved for consideration are factored in, filmmakers are expected to spend nearly $726 million in the state.
The program, known officially as the Film, Television and Video Promotion Program, has come under fire after revelations of misconduct emerged last week. Responding to the accusations, Gov. Culver fired the head of the Iowa Film Office, Tom Wheeler, and asked the attorney general and state auditor to conduct an investigation into the program.
The top two officials at IDED, Mike Tramontina and Vince Lutz, have resigned.
An internal audit of the program found that credits were not used properly. For instance, some credits were used to purchase luxury vehicles (a Mercedes and a Land Rover) that were not used directly on the film and the amount of credits claimed was the full purchase price rather than the lease cost during the project. The audit found numerous irregularities, ranging from substandard reporting of how credits were used to using venders who reside outside of Iowa.
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