Published: January 23, 2007 03:01 pm      

Legislature fails to properly address property tax issues

Shortly after winning election as governor last November, Chet Culver announced his appointment of a special panel to investigate the unreasonably high commercial property taxes and report back to him before his January 2007 Condition of the State Report.

Two months later, the panel’s early report finds widespread agreement in the disparity in school property taxes across the state as a huge issue.

Rewind for a moment to September 2005 when I announced my candidacy for State Representative from Clinton.

A central issue in that announcement, and for the following 14 months of the campaign, concerned the unfairly high property taxes paid by Clinton residential and business property owners simply by following the state-mandated formula for school taxes.

You may recall how I pointed out we paid the eighth highest rate in the state, out of 367 school districts. Some of you may even recall that not only could I identify and explain this taxation issue, I also had a plan to end this unfair burden on Clinton.

Return to the present and watch the Iowa Legislature continue to fail with addressing this issue under the current administration and leadership. Hang on to your wallets, because when the Band-aid fix of extra state funding to Clinton expires, your property taxes will shoot back through the roof.

The reason is simple; to really fix it takes away money for other programs and services (like the untold millions to make Iowa a “Green State.” Based simply on the election outcomes, that must have been a huge issue for the voters).

Not all is without hope. It appears we are on track to give the uneducated, or under-educated, or even the illegal alien hourly worker a 40 percent raise in minimum wage. No consideration seems to be made to inspire people to get their high school diploma or GED, but rather reward sloth and avarice with a raise that is still not a living wage.

Recalling another campaign issue I pointed out, I wonder how much of this money earned by illegal immigrants will go back to relatives in their home country.

In a copyrighted story in the Des Monies Register on Oct. 28, it was estimated $138 million in immigrant wages would leave the state. I will leave it for you to make your own estimate for this year based on the minimum wage increase.

I have yet to see the majority party plan to have undocumented, illegal alien residents help pay things such as their health care or education of their children, including the costs we pay for special training of teachers, the educational materials and classrooms to teach them in their native languages.