Gomers: What's going wrong

FIX IT: Last year, Iowa legislators never decided whether to couple Iowa's tax rules with 2008 federal tax code changes, as is the usual case. The result was confusion with some taxpayers treated differently than others.

The governor stepped in to temporarily delay any penalties. But the issue still hasn't been resolved, nor has it for the 2009 tax year. Some lawmakers are reluctant to couple the federal changes that included tax breaks for disaster victims because they might reduce revenue for the state budget. Taxpayers deserve clearer direction.

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COSTLY TRAINING: Iowa's new-job training program is the nation's most expensive, according to an internal review by the Iowa Department of Economic Development. The average was $13,000 for each worker; the national average was $525. So what are we getting for our money?

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TOO SOON: A familiar voice on Iowa Public Radio for nearly 23 years has been silenced. Greg Shanley died Tuesday at age 49. He joined radio station KUNI in Cedar Falls, now part of the public radio network in Iowa, as a reporter in 1987. Most recently, he was host of “Talk of Iowa.”