Iowa’s business tax climate improves
The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate rankings from 2018 to 2024 show that Iowa has made huge improvements, Iowa moved up 13 spots from 46th worst state for business taxes to 33 — one of the largest moves of any state over the same period.
Iowa has enacted recent changes to its state income tax to gradually flatten a progressive income tax structure over time. Its individual income tax, which previously had nine tax brackets, is in the process of being consolidated to a single flat rate of 3.9%.
The change is reported to deliver a 26% reduction in income tax burden for the median household and cut taxes for 98% of Iowans with $10,000 or more in taxable income.
Now that the state is making progress on the tax side, we would now like to see a priority on increasing the population of the state.
Iowa continues full employment
Economists estimate that full employment is when the unemployment rate is between 4% and 6%.
Full employment is also loosely defined when everyone who wants a job has one, employers have the skilled workers they need and there is limited inflationary pressure on wages.
Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.8% in July, unchanged from June and .2% lower than a year ago, according to an Aug. 15 report from Iowa Workforce Development.
The state’s labor force participation rate dropped to 66.4% from 66.5% in June, with a majority of those leaving the workforce doing so because of retirement.
By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate increased to 4.3% in July.
“July’s report provides evidence of a tightening national economy, consistent with what we are seeing across the country,” Iowa Workforce Development Executive Director Beth Townsend said. “Some industries, such as advanced manufacturing, have been under pressure for some time, and the impacts of that are beginning to appear in July’s data.”
The total number of working Iowans fell to 1,638,000 in July. This figure is 3,600 lower than June and 21,200 lower than one year ago.
It’s no wonder that the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s annual CEO Survey, which was published in July, revealed that talent recruitment remains the biggest challenge for most (51%), followed by rising input costs (22%).
We know what the challenge is. What are we doing about it?
Best wishes to Tom Pientok
Tom Pientok has led two of the region’s largest privately held companies, first Apache Inc. from 1998 to 2018 and currently as CEO of Timberline Manufacturing based in Marion, from which he will soon retire.
“It has been humbling to have had the opportunity to lead Timberline Manufacturing,” Mr. Pientok said in a news release. “I am incredibly proud of our employee-owners and what we’ve accomplished together as a team. Without a doubt, the past six years have been some of the most challenging yet rewarding in my career.”
He will continue to lead Timberline through March 2025 or until a successor has been named.
