Jim Ross Lightfoot wants to cut your taxes.

The Republican candidate for governor and former U.S. Representative says trimming Iowa’s income tax rate is his highest priority.

“The thing that affects you most is how much you have left in your paycheck at the end of the week,” Lightfoot told the Daily in an interview from his Des Moines campaign office.

If elected, Lightfoot said, he would work to lower the effective marginal rate from 5.4 percent to 4 percent over five years, with a 5 percent cut occurring each year.

This “five-by-five” plan has drawn heavy fire from Democrats, especially Lightfoot’s opponent, state Sen. Tom Vilsack.

But Lightfoot touts his strategy as the best way to boost Iowa’s economy.

“If our state doesn’t grow, we’ll stagnate,” he said, explaining that with the lessening of the tax burden, more people will be attracted to Iowa.

“Our big challenge today is keeping people here and providing a good quality workforce,” he said.

“The job has to be there, the pay has to be right and the quality of life has to be right,” Lightfoot said.

“We do well in quality of life, but where we continually come up short in those kind of evaluations is the cost to live here,” he said.

Lightfoot acknowledged that economic factors are only a part of the decision, with tourism, education and culture opportunities also playing an important role.

“It’s not a silver bullet; it’s not going to solve it all by itself,” he said of his tax plan. “But taxes are a start. It’s something that the state government can have a major impact on quickly.”

The loss of tax revenue due to the “five-by-five” initiative would subtract $600 million from the state’s income, a change some describe as reckless.

Lightfoot counters by citing the tax cuts instituted by recent sessions of the Iowa Legislature, which also cost the state about $600 million.

While lowering taxes, he said, the state still increased education funding 27 percent and moved from a $400 million debt to a $800 million surplus.

Later in the interview, Lightfoot said he opposes the pace of rising tuition at Iowa’s regents universities.

“This is too big of a jump too quickly,” he said. “To make that big a jump is a pretty tough row for students to hoe at this point in time.

“You’re bound to see some increases, but it ought to be a lot more systematic in the way it’s done,” Lightfoot said.

He said Iowa State’s Direct Loan Program has done an “outstanding job” of helping students with their education budget.

To lower costs even more, he suggested, direct loans could be supplemented by guaranteed loans, which are provided by commercial lenders.