ITR Foundation President Chris Ingstad and Policy Director John Hendrickson joined the ITR Live podcast to discuss the ongoing efforts in Iowa to cut taxes, specifically regarding the skyrocketing property tax burden.
Restrain Local Governments Addicted to Property Taxes Property taxes are despised. We hear from Iowans of all political stripes about the giant bite property taxes take from family budgets. Now inflation is adding pressure by pushing up the price of gas and groceries, not to mention rising real estate assessments and tax bills. Of course, increasing assessments don’t have to […]
Iowa’s economy is in strong condition. Problems remain, such as the need for more workers to fill the thousands of open jobs throughout Iowa. Nevertheless, thanks to sound conservative fiscal policies from Governor Kim Reynolds and the legislature, the state is on a solid foundation. Conservative budgeting and pro-growth tax reforms are creating a stronger economy. However, national economic headwinds are creating problems and it appears more likely that an economic recession is imminent.
Property taxes are despised. Believe me, I and my organization hear from Iowans of all political stripes about the giant bite property taxes take from family budgets. Now inflation is adding pressure by pushing up the price of gas and groceries, not to mention rising real estate assessments and tax bills.
Rolling blackouts may be coming to the Upper Midwest—including Iowa— this summer, according to an analysis from the North American Reliability Council (NERC), a nonprofit international regulatory authority whose mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid.
ITR Foundation President Chris Ingstad and Research Director Sarah Curry joined the ITR Live podcast to talk about what Indianola property taxpayers are facing and why local governments believe they need so much money.
Why do local governments believe they need so much of your money? In recent years, Iowa property valuations have increased considerably. Large valuation increases usually translate into increased revenue for local governments in the form of property taxes. Given the impact of inflation, we can expect this trend to continue. It will be interesting to see how Iowans manage to bear a growing property tax burden while paying more for gas, groceries, and everything else.
ITR’s Chris Hagenow, and Ernie Adkison along with ITR Foundation’s Chris Ingstad get together to discuss chickens, bounce houses and pressure washers along with a few other random topics. The results of Iowa’s primary elections. Big wins for Republican United States Senator Chuck Grassley and his opponent Micheal Franken. State Senator Zach Nunn wins big and will now be […]
Iowa and ITR Foundation In National Spotlight Another national media outlet has taken note of the work Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Legislature are doing. Real Clear Policy published The State Built on Fiscal Conservatism – Not Federal Handouts by ITR Foundation Policy Director John Hendrickson. John explains how prudent, conservative spending made this year’s tax reform possible. The Washington Times recently sought […]
After looking at real estate in Utah, an Iowa couple was shocked at Utah’s low property taxes and declared, “Iowa should do whatever Utah is doing!” They are correct. Iowa should fix its broken property tax system with the solution that has worked in Utah for almost four decades: Truth-in-Taxation.
The 2022 legislative session was historic for Iowa taxpayers. Nearly two months ago the legislature passed the largest tax relief measure in Iowa history, which was signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds on March 1. What too many people overlook is that significant tax cuts like Iowa’s are only made possible by years of prudent and conservative budgeting.
Since 2018, Governor Reynolds and the legislature have placed an emphasis on passing tax reforms and restraining the growth of spending. This legislative session delivered the third (and largest) round of tax cuts yet, which was accompanied by a budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 of $8.2 billion. This is a slight increase from the $8.1 billion FY 2022 budget and will likely mean yet another large budget surplus.
Host Chris Hagenow was recently named President of Iowans for Tax Relief and is joined by new ITR Foundation President Chris Ingstad to discuss their new roles within the ITR family of organizations. The Chris’s talk about why the future is bright not only for their organizations but, more importantly, for the future of the state of Iowa. After explaining […]
Do you ever get together with friends and instead of socializing about normal topics, you get thrown into a conversation about taxes? Well, that is exactly what happened to me the other day. Admittedly, having spent most of my career in public policy, it happens to me a lot. This time, however, I wasn’t the one who started it.
Iowa’s unemployment rate declined to 3 percent in April, which is down from 3.3 percent in March. “The number of unemployed Iowans decreased to 50,900 in April from 55,600 in March. The total number of working Iowans increased to 1,646,800 in April — a figure that is 10,000 higher than March and 45,100 higher than one year ago,” reported Iowa Workforce Development. Unemployment insurance claims are at their lowest level since 1973.
Every time I write about healthcare reform, I receive at least one comment about the need to get the government out of healthcare entirely. I’m not unsympathetic to this argument, but I think it’s unrealistic.
It is true that industries, which have seen the largest increases in costs over the past few decades, such as healthcare and higher education, are also some of those most highly impacted by government interventions. Since 1965, when the federal government got seriously involved in healthcare with the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid, inflation-adjusted per-capita spending on healthcare has increased more than six-fold, to an average of over $12,000 per person today.
ITR Foundation Policy Director John Hendrickson joined the ITR Live podcast to talk about why it is important that the Iowa Caucuses remain first in the nation and the importance of the Electoral College.
Uncle Sam is broke and the nation is on the verge of a serious debt crisis, if we are not already in one. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released an alarming report regarding the nation’s fiscal health and their conclusions aren’t good. The report, which should be taken very seriously, flatly states, “The federal government faces an unsustainable fiscal future.” Consider the magnitude of Congress’s own watchdog cautioning the nation that we cannot continue down the same spending path we are on.
Rural citizens and legislators are concerned that school choice would take critical funding away from their local schools. ITR Foundation Deputy Director Walt Rogers sat down with Need to Know host Jeff Angelo to debunk this myth and explain how school choice would improve education quality through the competition. The discussion starts at the 9:25 minute mark.
The School Choice Questions We Should Be Asking The education establishment has done an amazing job of creating the perfect “Emperor’s New Clothes” scenario when arguing against school choice. In the story, the emperor is fond of clothes and two “weavers” enter his capital, telling him they will create a magnificent suit for him that would be invisible to all […]
It appears the Republican Party will maintain Iowa’s first in the nation status for its 2024 presidential caucus, but uncertainty remains whether Democrats will continue to have Iowa leadoff their party’s nominating process. Iowa’s first in the nation presidential caucuses have become a tradition and are an integral part of the state’s political culture. As a reminder, Donald Trump won Iowa’s Republican caucus in 2020 and Pete Buttigieg was the choice of Iowa Democrats that year.
Iowa has a long history with property taxes and it is one of the most debated issues, even dating back to before statehood. The very first Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa met in 1838 in Burlington, and one of their primary goals was to develop a revenue system. A few short months later the Iowa Territory created a property tax for residents, levied and collected by the counties – a function which the county still performs to this day.
How’s your property tax bill? If you tell us it’s too high, we won’t argue with you. In fact, we keep proposing solutions to deliver stronger taxpayer protections. But property taxes exist to fund our K-12 education system and city and county governments, as well as other services we all have access to; they are never going away. So maybe […]
Maybe you missed it, but April 3-9 was Affordable Housing Week in Iowa, where one of the main takeaways was that Iowa needs to increase its housing supply. It’s no secret that many states, including Iowa, have a housing shortage. Housing advocacy groups have identified a particular shortage of affordable homes, especially for lower-income Iowa families. In fact, it is such a pressing need that the State has designated $330 million over a five-year period to help aid in the issue.
The education establishment has done an amazing job of creating the perfect “Emperor’s New Clothes” scenario when arguing against school choice. We’ll remind you of the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale that raises questions about believing our own two eyes or buying into a pretense that is being sold to us. In the story, the emperor is fond of clothes […]