New Iowa Governor Terry Branstad proposed to increase Iowa’s gambling tax while cutting the top corporation income tax rate in half. The Des Moines Register reports on his budget proposals released yesterday:

The proposal would increase casino taxes from 22 percent or 24 percent to 36 percent. The increase would raise an estimated $200 million and set the rate at one even level for all casinos and at a rate the Legislature originally intended, Branstad said.??The extra money collected from casinos would allow the state to lower its sliding-scale corporate income tax, now ranging from 6 percent for companies making $25 million or less in net income to 12 percent for companies that make $250 million or more.*
Branstad, who said all Iowans must take part in budget sacrifice, proposed lowering the corporate tax rate to a flat 6 percent.

*An alert reader points out that the Register’s rate schedule is a bit off. The actual rates:
6% to $25,000;
8%, $25,000-$100,000
10%, $100,000-$250,000
12% over $250,000
A reduction in Iowa’s highest-in-the-nation corporation tax rate is long overdue. So is a comprehensive clean-up of Iowa’s tax law, which is a rats nest of special-interest breaks and corporate welfare tax credits. While the Governor is proposing an improvement over the current system, funding it with a raid on the Polk County Board’s Prairie Meadows pinata passes up an opportunity to combine a corporate rate reduction with a cleanup of the corrupt system of special interest tax breaks. If the legislature is interested, there is another way.
More coverage at Radio Iowa.
Link: Budget Documents from the Governor

Tags: Branstad tax policy, corporate welfare, economic development, iowa tax policy, Jason Clayworth, O Kay Henderson, Quick and Dirty Tax Reform Plan, tax reform

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