Iowa House Republicans approved language for a proposed constitutional amendment Tuesday that would prevent future state lawmakers from raising personal and corporate income taxes unless two-thirds of the Legislature agrees.
Republican lawmakers have passed several rounds of income tax cuts in recent years and may make further cuts this year. The constitutional amendment would make it very difficult for the Legislature to change that in the future. Instead of a simple majority, two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote to raise personal or corporate income taxes.
Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, said this would limit future elected officials’ ability to respond to changing economic conditions.
“What this constitutional amendment does is to say next time there’s a budget crunch, we’re going to shift that burden onto the poorest Iowans either by taking away services they rely on, or increasing regressive taxes,” he said. “I think that’s wrong.”
Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, said several other states—led by both Republicans and Democrats—have had similar policies in place for decades.
“The sky did not fall,” he said. “Every example of a mystopian [sic] future did not happen. There were no grave consequences.”
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, said the proposal could allow a small minority of lawmakers to extract special favors and could hurt the economy.
“That’s because it would force policymakers to cut spending or raise taxes just when the economy is weak, or already in recession, the opposite of good economic policy,” he said.
Kaufmann said he believes the experience of other states is relevant to Iowa.
“If this bill is good enough for the home state of President Biden, if it’s good enough for the home state of Vice President Kamala Harris, if it’s good enough for [California] Governor [Gavin] Newsom, and if it’s good enough for Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Patty Murray [of Washington], it’s damn good enough for Iowa.”
Rep. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, said this also makes it harder to raise taxes on corporations at a time when CEOs have “astronomical wealth.”
“This is enshrining the protection of those corporations to ensure that, forevermore, the rich will get richer while the rest are left behind,” he said.
The House voted 61-35 to approve the language, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no.
Proposed constitutional amendments must get approved by two General Assemblies before going on the ballot for Iowa voters to have the final say. If the Senate approves this language this session, it would have to get approved again in 2025 or 2026 before going on the ballot in 2026.
The original proposal would have also required any state income tax to be a single rate, but that was taken out to be considered as a separate constitutional amendment.
