SF 2348 – Local option taxes in certain contiguous cities
SSB 3214 – Employee consent for wage payment by debit card
HF 2444 – Department of Revenue efficiency bill
FLOOR ACTION:
SF 2348 changes local option sales tax (LOST) approval mechanisms for qualified counties (Polk, Dallas and Warren). Currently, contiguous cities within a county must each vote to approve the adoption of LOST in an election that occurs on the same day in all cities and unincorporated areas of the county. If one of the contiguous cities fails to approve the LOST, the LOST is deemed to have not been approved in all of the contiguous cities. The new approval process for cities and unincorporated areas of qualified counties allows each city or the unincorporated areas of the county to vote individually. At the time LOST is approved in more than one city or unincorporated areas, the revenues generated by the LOST would be distributed according to the established formula, which continues to be the same statewide. [4/9: 34-16 (Republicans voting "no" except Behn, Breitbach, Chapman, Garrett, Johnson, Schneider, Segebart)]
HF 2444 is the Department of Revenue’s efficiency bill. The bill eliminates unnecessary notice provisions in the Code regarding interest calculations for motor fuel taxes and the inheritance tax, and provides the director authority to retain records in an electronic format rather than in paper form. The Senate adopted an amendment on the floor that provides a one-year extension of the special gas tax rate for ethanol-blended fuel. This rate was set to expire after June 30, 2014. [4/7: 49-0 (Houser excused)]
COMMITTEE ACTION:
HF 2448 eliminates the Enterprise Zone program, makes changes to the High Quality Jobs program and creates a new Workforce Housing Tax Credit. High Quality Jobs (HQJ) and Enterprise Zones (EZ) have many similar incentives. Both programs provide investment tax credits, sales tax refunds, supplemental research and development tax credits, insurance tax credits and property tax exemptions. Both programs require certain wage thresholds, benefits requirements and jobs requirements. HQJ has three capabilities that EZ does not have: statewide eligibility, county level distress criteria and loan-based assistance. Under the current Enterprise Zone program, zones are limited to 1 percent of a county’s area.
HQJ requires 120 percent qualifying wage threshold unless a project is in a distressed county. A distressed county, based on short-term and long-term unemployment measures requires a 100 percent qualifying wage threshold. EZ’s current wage threshold requirement is 90 percent qualifying wage threshold. The bill adds the terms “brownfield and “grayfield” into the HQJ program. The bill would allow a 90 percent wage threshold for any project that is developed on a brownfield site and a 100 percent wage threshold for any project that is developed on grayfield site. These sites can be located anywhere in the state.
The new Workforce Housing Tax Credits are available for housing projects that include four or more single-family dwelling units or three or more units of a multi-family dwelling. Tax credits are also available in an upper-story project that consists of two or more dwellings. The housing tax credits are targeted at middle-income housing. The tax credits will be made fully transferrable. The bill puts cost caps of $200,000 per unit, unless the project is a historic preservation project, in which case it is eligible for $250,000 per unit. New credits are capped at no more than $1 million in benefits per recipient and no more than $20 million aggregate. The $20 million is placed under Iowa Economic Development Authority’s maximum aggregate tax credit cap.
Also, the bill changes the transferability status of outstanding current Housing Enterprise tax credits. Under current law, the investment tax credits for housing businesses are transferable if a housing development is located on a brownfield site or in a blighted area, or if they are receiving low-income tax credits. Iowa Economic Development Authority is limited to approving $3 million worth of tax credits in a year for those projects not receiving low-income tax credits. The bill would lift that cap to allow the backlog of requests to be approved for transfer. [4/8: short form]
SSB 3214 outlines simple protections for workers who are paid using payroll debit cards. The bill will require the employee to consent to being paid by payroll debit card, and only after they have been informed in writing of any fees that may arise from the use of the card. The employee must also be able to withdraw all of the wages they are owed at least once per pay period without being charged a fee to access their money In addition, the employer must allow the employee to choose to be paid in a different manner if they no longer wish to be paid using the payroll card. [4/8: short form]