Iowa lawmakers should forget tax cuts, fund priorities

Fourteen years ago after my wife and I retired from our jobs in Michigan, we decided to move closer to one of our son's home, one in Minneapolis, the other in Cedar Rapids; we chose Cedar Rapids. Income taxes on our retirement incomes did not even make the list of considerations about which city or state to which we would move. In fact, at the time, I believe taxes in total (income, property, sales) were slightly higher in Iowa than in Michigan.

Our major consideration in making our retirement move was to be closer to family.

When we moved to Cedar Rapids, we were impressed with its state funding for public education at all levels, which did does affect our grandchildren, and its investment in human services. Over the years we've been disappointed at the dwindling amount of state funding for public education, human services and infrastructure.

We'd vote for keeping the taxes and increasing funding for the aforementioned services. I can assure our governor and state legislators that removing or lowering taxes on our retirement incomes will have absolutely no effect on any future decision about whether or not we'd move out of Iowa.

Rev. Lyle A Kleman (ret)

Cedar Rapids