No income tax for people under 30″ is the new rallying cry for Republicans in the Iowa Legislature.

It’s their attempt to solve the state’s “brain drain” — the problem of the best and brightest young people leaving Iowa after high school or college.

Although the tax cut itself is not a great idea and wouldn’t do much to stop the exodus, it is good to see our legislators trying to tackle this important issue.

From 1989 to 2001, Iowa lost a third of the undergraduates it produced. Thirty thousand Iowans age 25 to 34 left the state between 1995 and 2000. Iowa is the only state in the nation not to at least double in population between 1900 and 2000. We’re second in the nation in percentage of the population 85 or older, third for 75 and older, and fourth for 65 and older.

Gov. Tom Vilsack has been working on this problem for a long time by trying to convince successful Iowa refugees to return home. Even the most optimistic claims of success for these efforts amount to just a drop in the bucket.

The Iowa Values Fund is a longer-range program intended to bring higher paying jobs to the state. If it works, it would help address part of the reason young people leave. But, with The Associated Press recently uncovering Legislative Fiscal Bureau projections saying the fund will ultimately lose money for the state, its feasibility is an open question.

Students who leave Iowa do so for primarily two reasons: they can find better jobs elsewhere or they think the state lacks the culture they desire. The under-30 tax cut addresses one of these problems — better jobs — only tangentially, and the other — an active youth culture — not at all. “Better jobs” doesn’t just mean better-paying jobs — fulfillment is an important factor as well.

A pass on state taxes doesn’t mean much in Iowa, which already has a relatively low cost of living. A better use of revenue would be to address the other areas where the state is lacking.

If tax cuts are in order (and it seems that tax cuts are the only policy Republicans can reliably be counted on to support these days), cuts targeted at attracting better jobs would be preferable. The employer tax credit for jobs paying more than $10 an hour, another part of the Republican plan, is a much better idea.

If the Values Fund will in fact benefit Iowa, it also has potential to keep young Iowans here. But may we humbly suggest that the Legislature also give some thought to making the state more exciting as well?