Spending exploded, Iowans’ taxes went way up under Branstad
September 24, 2009
One of Terry Branstad’s biggest challenges in his 2010 campaign will be making members of his own party, and all Iowans, forget what happened to the state budget on his watch. The short answer? It exploded.
At some point, there wasn’t enough money in the general fund for all of the big-spending programs he signed into law. When that happened, Branstad simply increased taxes. (He made two separate increases in the sales tax, increasing that one tax alone by 67 percent.)
In 1994, Branstad was challenged in a primary by a member of his own party, largely on his failure to manage the state budget – and came within a few percentage points of losing his office! At that time, a national political newspaper called The Hotline reported on David Yepsen’s column dated February 21, 1994 that, “For years, conservatives have tolerated (GOP Gov.) Terry Branstad’s tax and spending increases… (Yepsen D., DES MOINES REGISTER, 2/21/94).” [Hotline, 2/24/94]. See the original Yepsen column in its entirety by clicking here and downloading the PDF.