Iowa tax cuts remain a GOP priority for post-pandemic era

DES MOINES — Statehouse Republicans — fortified by 2020 election successes — are hoping this year to resume revamping state tax policy against a backdrop of revenue uncertainty as Iowa works to rebound from a deadly pandemic and damaging derecho.

The biggest question marks hanging over Gov. Kim Reynolds and the GOP-led Legislature are how soon and how effective will a vaccine for the coronavirus be in returning some semblance of normalcy, and how will government finances stand up to the COVID-19 ripple effect as they build a new state budget without the safety net of the one-time federal infusion of $1.25 billion in aid and billions more in emergency assistance.

“We’ve always approached it in a way for uncertainty,” Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said in discussing GOP budgeting principles that has held spending below projected tax collections, though “we didn’t know that it would be this uncertain.”

“We have always tried to budget in a way where, if something unforeseen happened, we were prepared for it and thankfully we did, looking at the position that we’re in now,” he said in a recent interview.

Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/iowa-tax-cuts-remain-a-gop-priority-for-post-pandemic-era-20210104
(Cedar Rapids Gazette)