Bipartisan tax reform group distributing voter guides

Last week, members of the bipartisan tax reform group Iowans for Fair Taxation visited Jasper County to distribute copies of The Iowa Statesman, a periodical the group uses to promote its agenda to establish a “fair tax” system both at the state and federal levels.

“Our publication seeks to educate, motivate and activate principled leaders across the state,” IFT President Craig Bergman said in his welcome statement on the tabloid-sized newsprint product. “We are entirely supported by your generous efforts.”

Despite the advantages to grassroots organizations mobilizing with the use of 21st century technology and social media, Bergman said there is still a “very practical advantage for print.” One-half million copies of the publication were printed and are being distributed to more than 1,000 communities across the state.

“We’ve gone to communities large and small with our message,” Bergman said in a separate interview about IFT’s initiative. “We’ve been to towns with as little as 42 people; towns where the co-op is the only thing left — they don’t even have a post office anymore.”

Contained inside the publication is a four-page voters guide that outlines the level of support candidates for all state and federal offices have stated for various issues, not just the issue of fair taxation. Bergman admitted the group didn’t reach the fundraising goal it had hoped for to fully disseminate the publication, or to provide as much detail in its voter guide as it had hoped.

“We set a goal of $180,000, but we only got about $80,000,” he said. “We would love to do a million copies with a regional voter guide inside. That would be wonderful, but it takes time, money and resources to pull something like that off.”

This won’t be the last time IFT distributes their publication, though. Bergman suggested the group would continue to distribute The Iowa Statesman in time for each primary and general election, at a minimum. Additional distributions would depend upon funding from members.

He is even more optimistic about his group’s efforts to change state and federal tax policy.

IFT advocates for “enactment of a simple, transparent, fair tax code to replace the current income tax system with a national retail consumption tax, commonly known as ‘The Fair Tax,’  and/or supporting legislation inspired by the FairTax initiative that is fair, efficient,  intelligent, and a moral alternative to current tax system(s).”

“We support significant reductions in property taxes, especially the egregious burden placed on businesses,” Bergman said. “Ultimately we would like to see the current property tax system abolished entirely.”

To do implement a Fair Tax in Iowa, he added, his group would need support from a majority in the Senate. He noted Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) has blocked the group’s legislation from being debated in the past.

“The current leadership there doesn’t want to bring our bills up for a vote,” he said. “So, we would have to make a change there, if not in both chambers.”

Bergman said there is a number of legislators who are willing to advance the issue of a Fair Tax in Iowa. He said he expects “serious discussion” in the Iowa General Assembly, regardless of the outcome of November’s election. He also expects the matter to be a substantive issue in the 2014 gubernatorial and statehouse elections.

“In Washington, we have 72 co-sponsors in the House, and about a dozen in the Senate,” he said. “Keep in mind, this isn’t to be confused with flat tax proposals. There are no flat tax bills in the works in D.C. The Fair Tax has been successfully defended numerous times ... it’s the proposition that has been thoroughly vetted.”

Bob Eschliman can be contacted at (641) 792-3121 ext. 423 or via email at beschliman@newtondailynews.com.