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Gov. Reynold Touts Tax Cut Competition Among GOP Governors

February 11, 2023 5:34AM CST
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Gov. Reynold Touts Tax Cut Competition Among GOP Governors
FILE – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers her Condition of the State address before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature, on Jan. 11, 2022, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Reynolds is introducing herself to the nation by delivering the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

(Radio Iowa) Governor Kim Reynolds has set a goal of getting rid of the state income tax by the end of 2026, but Reynolds says she decided not to push for an interim step this year.

“We would have probably taken a look at it this year, bringing it down just a little bit more, but I wanted to kind of take a look, just watch what was happening with the environment, with inflation and recession,” Reynolds says. “We would have, I think, been OK, but I just focused on education reform this year and then really taking a look at government and how we provide services to Iowans.” Reynolds and the rest of the nation’s governors are meeting in Washington, D.C. this weekend and the governor made her comments at a forum sponsored by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Reynolds says 15 of her fellow Republican governors are proposing tax reductions in their states this year.

“The great thing about Republican governors is we’re very competitive,” Reynolds says, “…which means I’m going to have to continue to cut taxes for Iowans.” Reynolds has signed three tax cut packages since taking office in mid-2017. The one she signed a year ago will reduce the individual income tax to a single rate of three-point-nine percent in 2026.

“But it’s not just cutting taxes and I think we’ve had some states that have had some difficulty with that,” Reynolds says. “They cut taxes, but they didn’t keep state spending in check and therefore ran into some issues down the line.” The state budget plan Reynolds presented to the legislature in January would spend just 82 percent of the tax revenue the state is projected to collect in the next fiscal year.