Statewide Iowa — A key Democrat in the Iowa Senate says the one billion dollars in the state’s Taxpayer Relief Fund should be used to reduce taxes for working Iowans and invest in schools, hospitals and child care.
Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City is the top Democrat on the Iowa Senate’s tax policy committee.
The billion dollars accumulated over the past two years as state tax collections surged past official estimates and were deposited in the Taxpayer Relief Fund.
Bolkcom says the latest estimate indicates more than nine billion dollars in federal pandemic relief money and loans has been sent to Iowa during the Trump and Biden Administrations and the state wouldn’t have this billion dollar surplus without that.
As KIWA reported Monday, Speaker Pat Grassley — the top Republican in the House — says the billion dollars is an overpayment that should be returned to taxpayers. Bolkcom says the across-the-board reduction in individual income taxes he expects Republicans to pursue primarily benefits the wealthiest Iowans.
Bolkcom says he and other Democrats favor increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for low and moderate income Iowans who work and have little to no income from savings or investments.
