Taxes Have Consequences

“I care about what I pay. I don’t care about the levy rate. I don’t really care about the assessed value of my house. I care about what my property tax bill is!”

It’s not the county assessor, and it’s not the arbitrary level of your tax levy rate. The amount that you pay in taxes is driven by one thing: locally elected officials and the budgets that they set. Sarah and John review a recent ITR Foundation article explaining who is not to blame for your rapidly-rising property tax bill.

Property taxes will be one of the top issues legislators will address in the upcoming session. To fix Iowa’s property tax problem, it is not about the minutia of how it is calculated. It is about restraining the ability of local governments to spend.

Far too often, local elected officials collect the windfall from higher assessments as they keep the levy rate the same or only slightly lower it.

What historical lessons can be learned from a look at the last 100 years of tax policy in America? ITR Live has the answers as John has the first-ever ITR Live book review, “Taxes Have Consequences,” by Art Laffer, Brian Domitrovic, and Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield.

Congratulations are in order to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on her new role as Chair of the Republican Governor’s Association. Governor Reynolds will have an even larger platform to showcase the success of Iowa’s conservative reforms on the national stage.  

Listen to this episode of the ITR Live podcast for all this and more!

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