To the editor:
Governor Culver and the legislators will again balance the state budget in the 2010 session without raising taxes. They will work to reduce the size of state government and create greater efficiencies while still making public schools and jobs a priority.
Iowa, and almost every other state, is facing a budget crisis. This disaster is the focus of two popular Iowa advocacy groups: 1) Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI), a nationally respected grass roots organization that goes to bat for everyday, ordinary Iowans; and 2) the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) that has been serving Iowa farmers since 1934. ICCI objects to balancing the budget on the "backs of hardworking Iowans"; and the IFBF objects to balancing the budget on the "backs of property taxpayers". (IFBF Spokesman, 1/27/10; www.iowacci.org.)
These organizations occasionally take different stands on issues. Since the farmers I know are the hardest working Iowans I have ever met and many of the hardworking Iowans I know are property taxpayers, I think we can find common ground.
ICCI knows what we all know--that the budget crisis is the direct result of big banks, like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, and Wall Street crashing our economy. The big banks are back to record profits, lavish bonuses, and business as usual while ordinary, hardworking, property taxpaying Iowans continue to suffer. ICCI says, “Our state budget deficits could be wiped out if the big banks gave their total bonus packages--estimated to be about $140 BILLION--back to our states.” These grass roots activists have taken their cause to the streets, and it is a movement that is gaining national attention and momentum.
If you are an ordinary, hardworking, or property taxpaying Iowan, join the movement. Write letters, march, and speak out. Put balancing our state budget on the “backs of the large national banks”. “Their bonuses are our bonuses,” says ICCI, “because we bailed them out and put them back in working order!” And, aren’t our states their states?
Phyllis Weeks
Knoxville
