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.
Iowa’s labor unions have stepped up and made sacrifices in order to help the state get past record deficits, and now it’s time for lawmakers to look at the tax code, two prominent labor leaders said.
During a taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 61 President Danny Homan said it is time to increase taxes and reform the entire system.
“I have called for tax increases. I have also called for eliminating tax exemptions,” Homan said. “We have wonderful exemptions in this state. Ostriches, for example, you don’t pay any sales tax on ostriches. Somebody that goes out and buys an airplane, they don’t pay a sales tax on an airplane, nor do they pay sales tax on the parts to repair that airplane. If someone in this state can afford an airplane, they ought to be able to afford to pay taxes on that thing. Draft horses, wine — wine shipped into this state does not suffer any sales tax. Rare and precious coins. I’m sorry, if you’re trading in rare and precious coins, maybe you could afford to pay sales tax on that.”
Iowa Federation of Labor State Secretary-Treasurer Janice Laue agreed, saying Iowa’s tax system is too regressive.
“Now when it’s time for, you know, to tighten our belts and we’re putting all the burden on the employees to carry this — carry us through this hard time, we should go back and ask the citizens of this state if these services are important to them, which I believe they are, that everyone share in the burden, and it wouldn’t amount to that much money,” she said.
Following the announcement of his 10 percent across-the-board cut to the state’s budget, Gov. Chet Culver called on public sector labor unions to reopen their contracts or face huge layoffs. AFSCME and the State Police Officers Council agreed, eventually voting to accept furloughs and deferred retirement payments in order to avoid layoffs.
“We’re taking five unpaid days to help balance the state budget. I don’t see anybody else doing anything to help balance the state budget,” Homan said. “I could be wrong, maybe somebody is. Maybe some people have written a check into the general fund. I haven’t seen them. All I’ve seen is our folks stepping up to the plate again. Again! And taking what amounts to giving money back to the state.”
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