Lawmakers return to the capitol Tuesday after the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The 2018 session started last week. Here are takeaways from IPR’s Statehouse Correspondent Joyce Russell says going into week two.
1) We have an idea on what Gov. Kim Reynolds will propose on taxes. Reynolds says she wants to simplify and reduce individual income taxes as well as eliminate federal deductibility. “That’s important,” Russell says “because with the new federal tax cuts, Iowans will have lower federal taxes to deduct.” If something isn’t done then state tax bill will go up.
2)Reynolds says she won’t include corporate tax cuts in her bill. She does not make recommendations for getting a handle on the millions of dollars in tax credits the state hands out to private industry and others. Instead, she’ll appoint a task force to study the issue. Some “Democrats say she’s putting off the hard part,” Russell says.
3)Expect independence from Republican legislators. “I personally don’t want to be tied to any one method of doing it,” says Republican Guy Vanderlinden, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, when asked about the governor’s tax proposal.
4) Implementing new workplace guidelines regarding sexual harassment will be harder than making the recommendations. Former Senate President Mary Kramer released her recommendations on Friday. “I think they will be under considerable scrutiny” to implement them, says Russell. The report says nothing has changed to prevent a repeat of what happened that led to a nearly $2 million sexual harassment settlement against Senate Republicans.
Follow Joyce Russell on Twitter @russell_ipr.
