New SILO = GFST (General Fund Sales Tax) – Just Wait and See
Nathan Greene
in Statehouse Issues
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By Emily Geiger
I’m annoyed.
And it’s because of the new tax increase just passed in both houses of the Legislature which will transform the local option school infrastructure sales taxes (which have been enacted in most of Iowa’s counties) and make it one statewide tax. As we say here at Battleground Iowa when the legislature is in session: another day, another tax increase.
What’s annoying is that the Dems have taken the one legitimate argument in favor of the bill and played on people’s emotions to get it passed (with the help of naïve Republicans who were dumb enough to fall for this emotional tripe).
Who doesn’t think that every Iowa school kid should get the same amount of money put toward their education as any other Iowa school kid? That’s a great argument. But there are other aspects of he bill that make it troubling.
For example, with the traditional local option sales taxes, they were enacted by a vote of the people. They expired after a period of time, and then the people of the county got to vote again to see if they wanted to continue with the sales tax. That means there was accountability. If the people didn’t like how the school district was using the money, they could take the money away.
The tax the legislature just passed would not expire for 20 years, which doesn’t leave much room for that accountability to take place. Plus, I’m guessing that the state will be so dependent on the revenue from the new tax by the end of that 20 years, there’s no way in hell the legislature is ever going to actually let it expire.
The other part of the bill that has people worried is that there is really no safeguard that would require this tax money to be spent on school infrastructure like it is now with the local option taxes. It won’t take long for this money to be used to fund Culver’s new, high teacher salaries and various other things that this money was never supposed to be used for. And, I’m guessing it won’t be long after that until this money just gets thrown into the general fund for whatever use the power-hungry majority sees fit.
Some legislators wanted a constitutional amendment that would ensure that future legislatures can’t steal this money for other purposes (similar to amendment passed this session safeguarding water conservation fund money). The Dems wanted no part of that.
Don’t believe me? Think I’m riding the wave down the slippery slope argument? Well, lets look at what happened with that settlement money the state got when we sued big tobacco 10 years ago. That money was supposed to go towards anti-smoking campaigns, cancer treatment and other tobacco-related expenses. First, the state forewent the $2 billion they were supposed to receive over a period of years for a lump sum payment of $500 million. Then they proceeded to spend it as fast as they could. And when it became apparent that there were budget shortfalls that needed to be met, these “designated funds” were spent on other crap the legislature thought we couldn’t live without.
Now, the tobacco settlement funds are gone.
So, do you really trust that this new sales tax will go to benefit our schools for years to come?
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