Give it up for property tax reform

If they really want commercial property tax reform, Statehouse leaders will have to give up.

Democrats must give up the notion that they can once again slide through this debate by slapping another credit on to our Rube Goldberg property tax system. Republicans are right that this pig needs butchering, not another coat of rouge.

Legislative Republicans need to give up the idea that the best way to help small businesses is to deliver a massive, one-size fits all reform package that directs heaps of property tax relief to big business. Democrats are right that small firms should be a main focus. There's already some progress on that front, in the form of a House GOP bill that would direct more relief up front to small business while still delivering real change.

And Gov. Terry Branstad has to give up the notion he's held for years, decades perhaps, that the relationship between state government and local government is parent-child.

Branstad appreciates the wisdom of Iowa voters when they're handing him five terms in office. But they're apparently much less wise when they're choosing mayors, city council members and county supervisors to make local tax and budget decisions. These poor, foolish waifs need the firm hand of a mustachioed father figure under a great golden dome.

So while Branstad's own property tax plan promises significant dollars to offset potentially lost local revenues, it also seeks to impose very tight limits on the ability of local leaders to set tax rates and craft spending plans.

These are the sort of limits that most powerful Statehouse types would never be willing to work under. Although it's true that local taxes are rising faster than state taxes, it's also true that local officials don't have nearly as many pots of dollars and taxing tools as their state friends.

Cities can't issue new gambling licenses or slap higher taxes on a pack of smokes or raise any of the countless fees and charges that the state sucks into its general fund. The state also has much more power to cut its spending than local governments beset by a maze of federal and state mandates.

There is a decent argument to be made for limiting the growth of property taxes. I think a lot of Iowans agree with it. But there's also a good case to be made that such limits should be coupled with new tools for local governments to cover the cost of services without over-reliance on property taxes. And it should be local voters, not state leaders, who get to decide how local services are funded.

More compromises at the Statehouse and less distrust of local government and we may just get a deal.