Branstads pay $70,706 in 2010 state, federal taxes

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad and his wife paid $70,706 in state and federal taxes for the 2010 tax year and collected a $369 refund from Iowa.

A day after federal taxes were due, Branstad allowed reporters to examine his tax returns that show the Boone couple reported an adjusted gross income of $313,663 last year. He and his wife, Chris, paid $62,831 in federal taxes and $7,875 in state taxes.

Although Branstad took no salary in 2010 – he had left his job as president of Des Moines University to campaign for governor, the Branstads showed a total income of $322,476. Most of that, $141,417, came from the final distribution of his income from a consulting firm, Policy Management Interests, LLC, for work Branstad had done as a consultant earlier not long after leaving the governor's office in 1999.. There also were director's fees paid for services on various corporate boards, according to his Chief of Staff Jeff Boeyink.

The Branstads showed another $52,069 in capital gains from the sale of a post office in Pleasantville. There was another $68,050 from an individual retirement account and $52,430 from Iowa Public Employees Retirement System.

Branstad, a fifth-term Republican, has been accused by Democrats and unions of “double-dipping” because he collects IPERS from his years in the Legislature and previous four terms as governor. He is earning $130,000-a-year in his current term. They scoffed at his comments that restoring fiscal order requires that every area of state government “share in this sacrifice.”

“At the same time, his policies have forced Iowa families to tighten their belt,” the Iowa Democratic Party said Tuesday. “Gov. Branstad has supported massive cuts to education, which means higher property taxes and teacher layoffs across the state. He supports forcing parents to pay for their children to attend preschool. In fact, a family of four making over $67,000 would receive no aid from the state.”

Branstad defended his actions, saying he took a “substantial financial sacrifice” in leaving the presidency of a private college to return as governor. That salary was in excess of $300,000. His adjusted gross income in 2009 was $396,000 according to Boeyink.

Boeyink pointed out that in addition to not drawing a salary in 2010, Branstad sold the post office property and tapped retirement funds earlier than he had intended.

“People can judge whether that is a sacrifice,” Boeyink said. “Next year's income will, I suspect, be significantly less than what we're seeing here.”

Branstad has resigned from all the corporate boards he served on, Boeyink said. However, he has taken no action to put his financial interests into a blind trust, something Branstad indicated he would do while he was campaigning for office.

“We've made no changes in his investment strategy at this point,” Boeyink said.

Boeyink went on to say the Branstads' investments are, for the most part, pensions and IRAs, and a dozen post offices they own in small Iowa communities.

“I think most important for folks is he's transparent about his finances so they know exactly where his income is derived,” Boeyink said. “I'm confident that if he ever felt that his actions would have any direct impact on his investments he would recues himself from that kind of decision-making.

“If you look at where he receives his incomes, where his investments are, there is very little an Iowa governor is going to do that can impact that,” Boeyink said.