This week on ITR Live, John and Chris cover a lot of ground from aquatic centers, the state fair, the latest CDC Covid-19 guidelines, and another history lesson.
Many cities believe the magical solution to local economic development and to improve quality of life is to build aquatic centers and other recreational areas. However, many of these facilities are struggling to find employees, forcing them to close their doors prematurely. As fun and luxurious as these things are when they are open, they are driving up property taxes in many cases. It is no secret that Iowans are fed up with property taxes across the state. The reality is local government spending is responsible for those increases. When local governments overlook the budget and become more focused on wants rather than the priorities they are supposed to provide, it becomes virtually impossible to lower property taxes. Local services should benefit everyone in the community, not just a select few.
As much of the country is trying to recover from the Covid-19 shutdown, our federal government believes it can spend its way out of a national recession. The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) adds another $750 billion to our $30+ trillion in national debt. It is likely that the IRA will not do anything to combat inflation and could have the opposite impact.
Speaking of the recession, John takes us back to the 1920s at a time when World War 1 had just ended, we were coming out of a deadly flu pandemic, and the economy was falling into a deep depression. At that time, the unemployment rate was 12% and many farms and businesses were closing.Thankfully, President Warren G. Harding took the opposite approach from President Joe Biden. Harding was adamant that in order to bring the country back, they needed to cut spending and regulations and begin to pay down debt. Beyond that, if they cut spending, they could also cut the high tax rate.“These are principles that just work,” John said. “Various administrations… think they can tax and spend you into prosperity, and that’s just not true. Look at Biden telling the American people that there is zero inflation; tell that to the person who’s in Fareway or Hy-Vee.”
