September 23, 2009
Fong Calls for Legislature and Governor to move on the Iowa Transparency Bill in wake of Tax Credit
(Cedar Rapids, IA) Iowa gubernatorial candidate and Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong (R) today called for the Legislature and Governor to enact the Iowa Transparency Act in response to the Iowa Film Office tax credit fiasco.
“Obviously the Culver administration has failed at almost every level to provide an adequate level of oversight on the tax credits that were paid out under the Iowa film office, as Iowans were made aware this week. The lack of transparency and accountability in state government may have been averted if we had in place an online transparency system. With today’s news that errors in the tax credits were evident as early as July of this year, this could have been corrected months ago,” said Christian Fong.
House File 801 was introduced by Republicans in the legislature and supported by a broad coalition including Iowans for Tax Relief during the legislative session earlier this year. The bill called for the creation of a searchable online transparency system where anyone could access state expenditures. Similar online transparency systems exist in other states, including Missouri. The bill passed the Iowa House but died in the Senate. A second attempt was also made to pass the bill as an amendment, again gaining approval in the House, but was eventually stripped out by the Democrat controlled State Senate.
Fong continued, “Governor Culver could have shown leadership on this bill during the session. He could have used his influence and bully pulpit to have put real accountability and transparency into state government, instead he sat back and taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars of questionable tax credits.”
Fong concluded, “The chorus of criticism of Governor Culver is loud and certainly well deserved. The Iowa Film tax credit saga is a textbook example of gross mismanagement. In the interests of offering a solution, I call on Governor Culver and legislative leaders to move swiftly to implement the Iowa Transparency bill, so we can open state government spending to millions of eyes across Iowa.”
