A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED 1998 TAXPAYERS' RIGHTS AMENDMENTS TO THE IOWA CONSTITUTION AND FISCAL CONSEQUENCES ASSUMING IMPLEMENTATION FROM FY1984 TO PRESENT

This staff paper reviews the Senate (SSB2072) and House (HSB688) versions of a proposed 1998 Amendment to the Iowa Constitution and provides a preliminary analysis of the fiscal impacts on the state general fund receipts, general fund appropriations, and local property taxes assuming each proposal was implemented in FY 1984. While the year-to-year reductions in spending are relatively small, the cumulative fiscal impact of the SSB2072 would likely have resulted in (1) a FY1997 state general fund limit that allows 32 percent less spending than actual FY1997, (2) a $710 million reduction in the growth of state aid to local government, and (3) a 29.7 percent increase in property taxes, if property taxes were used to fully replace the reduction in growth of state aid to local governments.HSB688 excludes some measure of state aid applied to property tax relief from the TRA limit. However, the proposed Constitutional language for this exclusion appears to potentially contain ambiguous wording. One interpretation of HSB688 excludes only new state aid for property tax credits that "ensure" reduction in property taxes. Applying this definition to TRA implementation in FY1984 resulted in a FY1997 state general fund limit that allows 30.7 percent less spending than actual FY1997 and a $639 million reduction in the growth of state aid to local governments. In turn this would have required a 26.7 percent increase in property taxes to hold local government spending harmless from the reduction in growth of state aid to local governments.Alternatively, a second interpretation of HSB688 may provide a broader exclusion of state aid to local governments. If all new state aid to local government is excluded, the TRA would have resulted in a FY1997 state general fund limit that allows 15.7 percent less spending than actual FY1997. No reduction in the growth of state aid to local governments means no increase in local property taxes. However, the Constitutional tax and spending limitation effectively only covers half of the state general fund revenues.