Iowa’s growing economy has allowed us to cut taxes while balancing the state budget and protecting local services and schools.
The changes we made during the 2013 session will put more money in the pockets of middle-class Iowans and make it easier for businesses to invest and grow. We approved tax cuts that are good for every employer and taxpayer in the state, including:
• Saving Iowans $4.4 billion over 10 years by overhauling our state’s property tax system. Every class of property will get a permanent tax cut—commercial, industrial and agricultural properties, as well as homes, apartment buildings and nursing facilities (SF 295).
• Helping low-income Iowa families work their way out of poverty by increasing the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit from 7 percent to 15 percent of the federal credit (SF 295).
• Putting some of the state’s budget surplus back into the pockets of eligible Iowa income taxpayers with a $30 to $60 tax credit any year the Iowa Taxpayers’ Trust Fund exceeds $30 million (SF 295).
• Encouraging rehabilitation of Iowa’s historic commercial properties and business districts by expanding eligibility for State Historic Tax Credits (SF 436).
• Attracting more businesses to locate and expand in Iowa by providing an additional $50 million in tax credits for this purpose (HF 620).
• Helping promising startup businesses get off the ground through a tax credit for investment in early-stage, innovative companies (HF 615).
• Cleaning up abandoned, blighted or contaminated industrial and commercial properties with $10 million in tax credits for so-called “brownfields” and “grayfields” (HF 620).
• Financing economic development by allowing municipalities to establish reinvestment districts where a portion of the sales tax revenue helps boost local projects (HF 641).
• Feeding hungry Iowans with healthy food through a tax credit for growers who donate produce to Iowa food banks and other emergency feeding organizations (SF 452).
• Ensuring a strong future for Iowa farming by expanding a tax credit program in which retiring farmers lease or rent land to beginning farmers (HF 599).
• Expanding the definition of agricultural property for tax purposes to include land used for the cultivation and production of algae for animal feed, nutrition or biofuels (HF 632).