KJAN

(Radio Iowa) – An analysis from a think tank called the Common Sense Institute concludes the latest round of state income tax cuts may create up to 6800 new jobs in Iowa next year.

Ben Murrey, the group’s director of research, said when you pull one policy lever, there are impacts in other areas of the economy. “Number one is when you reduce the individual income tax rate, it’s a boost in consumer spending,” Murrey said.

Business owners who’re paying less in personal income taxes may choose to hire more employees, Murrey said. “That’s how a policy like this ultimately can benefit people who don’t even get the direct benefit of the tax cut,” he said. “They end up getting some of those indirect economic benefits.”

Murrey’s report concludes Iowans will pay $1.85 billion less in state income taxes over the next decade an in 2025 an Iowa household with an annual income of $75,000 will get a $410 state income tax cut.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst joined a group of conservative colleagues in vowing to retaliate against the Biden administration for last week’s guilty verdict in former President Trump’s trial.

At least 11 Republican senators have signed a letter so far, promising to do things like oppose President Biden’s political and judicial appointees, and to oppose administration requests for funding increases for anything not directly related to security and public safety.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley was asked Tuesday if he’d be signing the letter, too.

Grassley says, “I have to say that not at this point, but what you said the letter said, I don’t find too much disagreement with.”

The letter was written by Senator Mike Lee of Utah and says: “The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways.”

Grassley says he needs to carefully review the letter before climbing on board.

“I’m a strong one, as you know, not to use the appropriations process — not getting done on time — as an excuse for shutting down the government, or letting the government shut down,” Grassley says, “and I want to know what the authors of the letter think of that point of view.”

The letter was also signed by senators including: Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, Roger Marshall and Josh Hawley, saying “…we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart.”