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.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad said once the economic recession is over, he’d be open to considering a fuel tax increase in order to pay for transportation projects. That’s a move his Democratic opponent, Gov. Chet Culver, has staunchly opposed.
Branstad talked to reporters at a campaign stop in Atlantic Monday. The Sioux City Journal reports:
“But, it’s a user fee, as opposed to a general tax, and I believe in a pay-as-you-go system, not doing it with borrowed money,” [Branstad said]. “I don’t think it’s something that we ought to be looking at at this time, but I’m not saying that down the road that we wouldn’t look at something.”
Lawmakers pushed for a gas tax increase in early 2009. That debate produced a unique political situation: Many Democrats in the legislature joined with Republican state Auditor David Vaudt and Republican Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey to support the gas tax hike, but Democrat Culver and Republican legislative leadership vowed to block it. Culver eventually promised to veto tax increase legislation.
Branstad has received criticism for the sales and gas tax increases Iowa saw during his first tenure as governor. But this campaign season, tax cuts have dominated the Republican’s campaign talking points. During the primary, he garnered the endorsement of Iowans for Tax Relief.
Very early in the primary season, fellow GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants said Branstad had already committed to increasing the gas tax.
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