Seeking practical solutions to persistent problems

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett's Engage Iowa 'think tank,” has yielded its first public policy proposal, a plan that links concerns about Iowa's tax climate with worries about impaired waterways.

We think his proposal is a good start to an important search for practical solutions to issues of taxes and water quality in Iowa.

The mayor unveiled his ideas at a Cedar Rapids Rotary Club meeting. He proposes raising the state sales tax by a penny, with three-eighths of the proceeds filling a constitutional trust fund for environmental efforts and the rest used to fill in revenue gaps that would be left by significantly lowering and flattening state income tax rates. Corbett would eliminate most, if not all, deductions for taxpayers earning more than $10,000 annually.

Corbett worries about two Iowa exports, wealth, due to tax rates he says are too high, and dirty water, sullied by agricultural runoff. His plan, he contends, addresses both.

We agree tax reform is needed. But we'd like to see a much broader conversation than simply lowering income tax rates and yanking deductions. Iowa's tax code is riddled with special interest breaks and loopholes, alongside an endless stream of tax credits awarded to businesses and others. The benefits of these breaks are often little known, but their expense costs us plenty.

The goal of tax reform should be balancing the need for low rates and simplicity with the need to fund our priorities, such as education, public safety and health care.

And the environment, which is why we have advocated for filling the natural resources trust fund created by voters in 2010.

We know that raising the sales tax to do that, in a Legislature controlled by both parties, will require some other tax trade-off. Corbett's is the first detailed proposal for that trade-off we've seen, and we hope it helps push a long stalled debate forward.

Corbett's proposals are far from perfect. Although it is clear flattening income tax rates would be a boon to wealthy earners, its effect on workers in the middle and lower-income levels is far less clear. His $10,000 income threshold for axing deductions seems low, considering how important the Earned Income Tax Credit is to families earning more than that.

But he deserves credit for starting the conversation, and offering specifics that would seek to address two long-standing issues of concern.

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