Industry News
Iowa Gambling Revenues Growing
A coalition of Iowa business leaders is now asking the State Legislature to set aside a portion of the new gambling revenue, from taxes, to finance the so-called "Vision Iowa" program, and reduce taxes on some businesses.
The Iowa Chamber Alliance, a group of local chambers of commerce, announced this proposal, at a news conference at the state house in Des Moines this week. The coalition represents 16 regional groups, from all over the state, home to soon-to-be former Rep. Jim Leach, the Republican anti-gambling activist who lost his bid for re-election last month.
“For successful revitalization, community leaders need a wide variety of tools,” said Nicole Christian, senior vice president for DavenportOne, an organization funded by the Davenport Chamber of Commerce.
Lower Property Taxes
According to Debi Durham, president of the Siouxland Chamber, the increased tax revenues from riverboat gambling and other gambling forms can also be used to lower property taxes for businesses across the Midwestern state.“Property taxes in the state are very uncompetitive for commercial and industrial property,” Durham said.
The new House Speaker Pat Murphy (D-Dubuque) said the legislature will make it a "high priority" to deal with property taxes.
A related project that all the business leaders are backing, called Vision Iowa, is a program started in the summer of 2000 that spent more than $200 million on 13 projects, with most of the money spent in the state’s largest metro areas. The program ran out of money two years ago, but with increasing gaming tax revenues in Iowa, business leaders said it could be funded once again.
There is such an increase in revenues from gambling that The Chamber Alliance plan would seek to allocate 25 percent of new gambling revenue for these building projects.
“Some have suggested that there is no call to rein in the activities of individual choice," said Rep. Leach, in a statement, issued before he lost his House seat, as he bragged about passing the anti-gambling bill. "But misjudgments affect society as a whole. There is nothing in Internet gambling that adds to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or makes America more competitive in the world. Indeed, if an individual cannot repay his or her credit card debts, neighbors will be subject to higher interest rates. Everyone loses if this industry continues its remarkable growth trends.”
Clearly, Mr. Leach was out of touch with his constituents, who are calling for more and more gaming in their rural Midwestern hamlets.
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