West Des Moines: Border City

The Tax Update Blog mentions Iowa House Ways and Means chair Jamie Van Fossen's ridiculous idea (Even dumber than supporting the 25% dildo tax? - Ed.) to allow Iowa's border cities to opt out of some or all of the state income tax. It's HF 721, and here's a portion of the bill:

This bill provides that a border city may vote to exempt the residents of the city from all or a portion of the state individual income tax. A border city is one with a corporate limit that is within five miles of another state.

Fire up the Gerrymander Machine, because we're going to turn West Des Moines into a border city.

For starters, I'd head south. WDM is only about 70 miles from the Missouri border, plus land is cheap in southern Iowa because nobody lives there and the land isn't that great for farming.

Work your way down George Mills Parkway to S. 60th Street, then jump south across the Raccoon River on the west side of I-35 until you reach Cumming (Yeah, yeah, you just HAD to go through Cumming, didn't you? - Ed.). Proceed south through Bevington, get close to St Charles, worm your way around the casino and Osceola (maybe Murray would like in on the deal), then make a new western suburb of Van Wert, slip by Kingston and Barrell and Terre Haute before deciding whether to deal with Lamoni or head over to New Buda. Before you know it you're saving 90% on firecrackers, getting 5 point beer, and can pick up a carton of Dorals for $11.97. Gotta love the Show-Me State!

What would that mean for West Des Moines residents? How about replacing the state income tax with just a flat 8% sales tax? That would be sweet.