Amendment One is built on a simple principle: Every Iowan’s income deserves the same protection from future tax increases. The amendment, which will appear on Iowa’s November 3 ballot, would require a two-thirds vote in both the Iowa House and Senate to increase an individual or corporate income-tax rate or create a new tax measured by individual or corporate income.
The amendment would not automatically reduce or eliminate Iowa’s income tax. It would not direct the legislature to make spending cuts, increase the sales tax, or change any other tax. It would simply require broader legislative agreement before Iowa income-tax rates could be increased. Most importantly, that protection does not depend on how much someone earns.
The Protection Applies to Everyone
Nothing in Amendment One distinguishes between taxpayers based on their income.
Amendment One would only protect income tax rates, not preferential treatment in the tax code. That protection applies whether someone has $25,000 of taxable income or $250,000. It applies to individual taxpayers, families, farmers, sole proprietors, entrepreneurs, Main Street businesses, and corporations of every size. The amendment offers no special breaks; its protection applies to every Iowa taxpayer.
In other words, Amendment One doesn’t ask who you are before protecting your income. The same constitutional protection applies to everyone. That makes claims that Amendment One is somehow a protection “for the rich” especially difficult to square with the actual composition of Iowa’s taxpayer population.
Iowa income tax data show that the majority of taxpayers who would receive Amendment One’s protection are anything but wealthy. Among Iowans reporting taxable income on their personal returns, a majority of them (approximately 54%) have taxable income below $50,000. Nearly 78% have taxable income below $100,000.
That means more than 664,000 Iowa filers with taxable income below $50,000 would receive Amendment One’s protection. Expand the calculation to those with taxable income below $100,000, and the number rises to more than 955,000 filers.
By comparison, approximately 28,000 filers have taxable income of $500,000 or more. Amendment One certainly protects them, too; it protects everyone. Describing a constitutional protection enjoyed by more than 1.2 million Iowa tax filers as being “for the rich” though, ignores who those taxpayers actually are.
One Standard for All
There is also a more fundamental principle at stake. A safeguard against income-tax increases should not depend upon whether a taxpayer earns $40,000, $100,000, or $1 million. Amendment One establishes the same rule regardless: If the Legislature wants to increase an income-tax rate, it must build a broader consensus to do so.
A two-thirds requirement does not make an income-tax increase impossible. It simply means an increase must have enough support to attract votes beyond a narrow legislative majority. That protection can be especially meaningful for ordinary taxpayers. A family earning $50,000 or $75,000 may have considerably less ability to absorb a higher tax bill than someone earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. Every dollar matters in a household budget, and protecting income from future tax increases does not suddenly become valuable only after someone reaches a particular income level.
Amendment One should ultimately be judged by what its language actually does.
It does not single out wealthy taxpayers. It does not provide a corporate tax break. It does not create a new loophole for a special interest. It establishes one rule for everyone. That isn’t a protection for the rich. It’s a protection for every Iowan who pays income tax.
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