Iowa GOP: Hatch quashed tax credit change for personal gain

CEDAR RAPIDS - Iowa Republicans are raising questions about gubernatorial candidate Sen. Jack Hatch's ethics - claims the Des Moines Democrat said have previously been debunked.

The Republican Party of Iowa Tuesday called on Hatch to respond to charges that he buried proposed legislation to reduce a tax credit for property developers because it would have cost him millions of dollars.

'Hatch made sure that the bill never got a hearing, much less a full debate on the Senate floor,” the RPI said in a release. The party claimed Hatch, who has developed housing projects in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, has received $7.3 million in developer fees. If the legislation in question - Senate File 95 - had been in force, the party claims Hatch stood to lose about $2 million in taxpayer money.

Hatch campaign manager Grant Woodard did not dispute the numbers, but called the charge a 'retread of a false attack” already independently debunked.

'The fact this desperate claim is being repeated shows Terry Branstad is extremely concerned about Iowans deciding Jack Hatch is more competent, honest and informed, and would make a great governor,” Woodard said.

He also thought the timing of the GOP's self-described 'major revelation” was curious.

The GOP lobbed the most recent attack on Hatch's credibility at the same time as Senate Government Oversight Committee hearings on whether Branstad pressured administrative law judges to rule against Iowans seeking unemployment benefits.

Woodard called it a 'lame attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigation into Gov. Branstad's mismanagement.”

SF 95, introduced by Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, in 2013 would have prohibited the Iowa Finance Authority from allowing a developer fee of more than 10 percent in qualified allocation plans adopted for federal low-income housing tax credits.

It was assigned to a subcommittee of Hatch, Sen. Jake Chapman, D-Adel, and Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo. There never was a subcommittee meeting on the bill.

'I wanted this bill to at least get a hearing so Iowans could debate the appropriate level of tax credits that benefit real estate developers,” Chapman said at a Statehouse news conference. 'Nonetheless, with real estate mogul Jack Hatch chairing the subcommittee, legislators and informed constituents found out quickly that the bill was DOA.”

Republicans and the Branstad campaign have been pressuring Hatch to release his tax returns for the past five years. Hatch is holding himself to the standard Branstad in the 2010 campaign when he released his 2009 returns.