Washington Post: Iowa Republicans pitch ‘crisis-proof’ tax cuts. Democrats see another Kansas in the making.

Some independent tax experts warned lawmakers could use budget gimmicks to get around the trigger, by, for instance, temporarily passing a higher sales tax to meet the requirements that would ensure the additional cuts take effect.

Others note that the trigger allows Republican lawmakers to tout bigger tax cuts than may really ever be enacted. The cut set to start only in 2023 is geared substantially more toward middle class taxpayers than the individual tax cuts that start immediately, which primarily benefit wealthy Iowans, said Peter S. Fisher, an analyst at the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.

“The trigger is a politically expedient way for lawmakers to claim they’ve cut your taxes without having to do anything immediately to make up for the consequences of reducing revenue,” said Meg Wiehe, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. Read more

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