Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Smokers in Iowa helped increase state revenues by over $40 million in April, according to a new report released today by the Legislative Services Agency.
During the month of April, the cigarette tax and tobacco taxes were two of the highest generators of revenue, with corporate income tax being 47.2 percent higher than in April of last year. State revenues are estimated to rise by 6.9 percent from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2007 according the LSA. That is an increase of almost $340 million.
The Iowa Legislature passed the cigarette tax hike earlier this year, with Governor Chet Culver signing the bill into law on March 15. The tax increase went into effect the next day. Packs of cigarettes went from having a $0.36 tax to a $1.36 tax.
Governor Culver and Democrats in the Iowa legislature campaigned in 2006 to raise the tobacco tax as a way to reduce young people smoking and preventing unnecessary health ailments relating to tobacco. Culver says the tax will keep 40,000 young Iowans from picking up the habit. Prior to the tax increase, about 4,200 Iowans under the age of 18 would pick up the smoking habit, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
In a March press release, the Campaign estimated that the state would see about $153 million in new revenues for the year. If the current pace of $40 million a month keeps up, the state could see a revenue increase of over $300 million from the cigarette tax alone. However, as more people decrease their purchases because of the higher price, revenues will be expected to decline to some degree.
The money generated from the tax increase is deposited into the general fund of the state of Iowa. Beginning on July 1, 2007, a standing appropriation of $127.6 million will be deposited in a new Health Care Trust Fund.
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