The chair of one of Iowa's powerful tax-writing committees said March 19 that allowing certain local projects to keep their own sales-tax revenue - rather than sending the money to the state - is a slippery slope.

"I think it's a very dangerous road to go down," Iowa House Ways & Means Chair Tom Sands (R-Wapello), told IowaPolitics.com. "The state started down that road just a little bit with the racetrack, and now, here are two other proposals that are coming off of that. So the next question is: Where will this end?"

In 2005, lawmakers and the governor first used this economic-development tool to bring NASCAR to Iowa. Then-Governor Tom Vilsack signed a law that paved the way for construction of the Iowa Speedway in Newton by allowing the racetrack to keep $12.5 million of its own future sales-tax revenue.

An Iowa policy group warned then that the Newton project would encourage other cities to seek similar subsidies from state funds. The group, it appears, was right.

Appointed state Representative Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) hasn't been in the House very long, but few would've ever picked him as a future legislative star. He stumbles badly during debates, isn't well informed on the issues, and has obviously had a lot of trouble getting his arms around his new job.

In other words, he probably won't be missed.

Smith was arrested last week on federal bribery charges. The feds say a campaign worker told them that Smith was anxious about fundraising problems and was willing to trade favors for checks. After being told a day-care-center owner was willing to pony up big bucks in exchange for an official letter requesting a $50,000 state grant, Smith allegedly pounced on the opportunity.

Despite a long Illinois tradition of supporting them, it's not exactly news that Republican members of the General Assembly no longer like voting for taxes of any kind. And that attitude created a couple of somewhat absurd positions last week.

Let's start with the "roll your own" bill. Legislation has been proposed to tax a growing practice of allowing people to use commercial machines to roll their own cigarettes in convenience stores and gas stations.

The stores sell their customers loose, bulk tobacco and then the customers dump the product into special rolling machines, which cost several thousand dollars each. The result is a per-carton sale price that is about half the price of a pre-rolled carton of brand-name cigarettes, mainly because the taxes on loose tobacco are much lower than on commercial cigarettes.

Iowa's influence in choosing presidential nominees generally diminishes after its first-in-the-nation caucuses. But this year could be different because of the lack of finality in choosing who the Republican nominee will be.

"I think we're in a different election cycle than we've ever seen before," said Republican National Committee member Kim Lehman of Johnston. "Historically, the nominee has already been chosen [by this stage in the process]. Clearly, we don't have a chosen nominee yet. That goes back to a trend that's happening where people are not allowing the political gurus to make the decision for the grassroots voters."

People in 10 states are casting their votes today - Super Tuesday, with 419 delegates up for grabs. But with the perceived GOP front-runner changing multiple times so far, political analysts don't expect Super Tuesday to clarify the GOP-nominee contest much.

"The race is far from over nationwide," said Steve Roberts, a former chair of the Republican Party of Iowa and a member of the Republican National Committee.

Four days after Super Tuesday, Iowa Republicans will gather for county conventions. They will vote Saturday on platforms and choose delegates who will go on to the April 21 district conventions and the June 16 state convention.