Multistate corporations take profit and run

As the budget tightens, Gov. Chet Culver has said that we all must share in the sacrifice. I can't help but wonder how the executives of multistate corporations doing business in Iowa will sacrifice this Christmas as our weakest politicians use public servants as punching bags to demonstrate their zeal in balancing the budget.

Multistate companies that are privileged to do business in this state aren't sharing the pain.

They are smuggling profits out of the state by shifting them in their books to tax-haven states in a practice that is robbing preschools, needy families and our communities of precious dollars. According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, up to $100 million yearly could have been saved had lawmakers shored up a tax loophole celebrated by corporations - and they had the chance to do it in 2007 but failed.

The current crop of gubernatorial candidates and so-called taxpayer rights organizations has no revenue-side solutions for our problems. Their answer is the pandering ax.

Those who support combined reporting - a way to count all corporate income earned in the state - are unwilling to put Iowa's future on the chopping block so readily. We need both combined reporting and other revenue-side solutions to Iowa's budget.

David A. Cmelik

Cedar Rapids