HOUSE TO HOUSE
By Polly Granzow
State Representative
First Bill is for veterans
The first bill taken up by the House this Session was appropriate relative to our returning veterans. On Thursday, the Iowa House unanimously passed House File 2065, which protects the jobs of reservists and National Guard members who are called to service. The approved legislation ensures that a military member is able to return to his/her job after completing service. The bill further replaces “similar position” with a “position of like seniority, status, and pay”. While most businesses have been very supportive and understanding of Iowa service men and women, there have been a few reported incidents. This bill tightens the current law and becomes effective upon enactment. As a member of the Veterans Committee, we will be seeing more bills to assist veterans.
MORE TAXES
The Governor’s budget recommendations include an increase of $332.6 million. They are summarized on page 17 of the 275 page document. One proposal is to capture unclaimed gift certificates, estimating an increase of $5 million. This means if you or I buy a gift certificate from a local establishment, and the certificate is not used; the owner of the establishment must turn the value of the certificate(s) to the State Treasurer and placed into the General Fund. When I support a local business, I want the money to remain with the business whether it is used or not. This could discourage people from buying gift certificates locally when they know it could be snatched by the State.
A second proposal is to change separate entity reporting to combined corporate reporting, estimating an increase of $75 million. This means that a company based in Iowa and does sales outside of Iowa, would be taxed on all profits combined. The same is true if a business outside of Iowa makes sales in Iowa would be taxed on all profits combined. Currently, they are taxed on sales in Iowa. Moving from separate entity reporting to combined is a major tax structure change and should not be considered a means to increase general fund revenues. It is possible that the State could see a revenue decrease. Combined reporting discourages business investment in Iowa, and out of state corporations who do business in Iowa could see higher taxes. That, coupled with the high real estate taxes they pay, could potentially cause them to look at their bottom line, move elsewhere, and take the jobs with them. Iowa chose separate entity reporting for economic growth purposes. It is not a “loophole closer” as Governor Culver stated in his presentation. Some affected companies include John Deere, Alliant, Pioneer, Monsanto, Lennox, Fisher, and Pella.
MORE HELP FOR HEAT
The State of Iowa received additional heating assistance funds just as the temperature dropped. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released an additional $450 million in emergency heating assistance funds for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Iowa received an additional $9,337,881 to the annual federal appropriation of $36 million. The additional funds will be used to increase the one-time heating grants from $300 to $400. Through December, 62,000 Iowans had signed up for the program. Expectations are over 85,000 will sign up for assistance by April 15, when the program ends for this year. In order to be eligible, gross annual income ranges from $15,315 for a single to $41,415 for a household of six. For additional information, call 515-281-0859 or http://www.dcaa.iowa.gov/bureau_EA/index.html.
Visitors this week were Brianne Goodin with AmeriCorps, Roger Lukes, David Schmidt and Janell King-Squires with Heart of Iowa, and Jean Eels with Soil Conservation.
I appreciate your comments. As always, you can contact me at polly.granzow@legis.state.ia.us or at 641-858-5210 on weekends.