This year, the state budget must help Iowa workers and businesses recovering from the national recession. That means doing all we can to encourage new jobs.

The plan we’re working on in the Senate balances the state budget without raising taxes. It includes:

• A commercial property tax cut that is especially helpful to Iowa’s small businesses and communities.
• New workforce training opportunities to help Iowans fill skilled job openings.
• Strengthening our commitment to student achievement through increased support for local schools.
• A pro-family, pro-work tax cut that also boosts local economies.

These ideas will help create jobs, expand educational opportunity and make Iowa a more attractive place to do business. Do you have ideas for growing the Iowa economy? Please send them my way!

The 2012 session should be all about jobs so that Iowa can continue recovering from the national recession and increase our global competitiveness. I intend to work in a bipartisan way to help Iowans create jobs and grow our economy. We have plenty of opportunities.

First, we should help Iowa businesses create jobs by cutting commercial property taxes. Last year, the Senate voted to cut property taxes in half for four out of five Iowa businesses.

The tax cut would be paid for with state dollars, not by shifting the cost of local schools and services onto the backs of homeowners and farmers. Most importantly, the Senate’s property tax cut helps those who need it: Iowa’s small and Main Street businesses.

Commercial property owners are currently taxed on 100 percent of the value of their properties. That means they’re paying more than any other class of property owner. This can hurt when it comes to expanding local business and luring new business to Iowa.

I voted recently for a $200 million commercial property tax break to grow Iowa’s small businesses and create new economic opportunities.

Other proposals intended to solve Iowa’s commercial property tax problem simply shift the burden onto homeowners, increase residential property taxes, or cut funding to local schools and local services. The Senate-approved plan does none of that.

I’m working to ensure a $200 million commercial property tax break that will help grow Iowa’s small businesses and create new economic opportunities.

Senate File 522, approved overwhelmingly by the Senate on a bipartisan vote, provides permanent property tax relief with no financial impact on local governments, schools, community colleges and other institutions that rely on property taxes.

Commercial property owners are currently taxed on 100 percent of the value of their properties. That means they’re paying more than any other class of property owner. This can hurt community efforts to expand and bring new businesses to Iowa.