Business interests had reason to expect a lot from the Iowa Legislature in 2011, and Republican leaders encouraged them to do so. And yet, despite an extraordinarily long session and a bulldog approach to negotiation by Gov. Terry Branstad, not much happened.

During his campaign to unseat Gov. Chet Culver, Branstad pledged to slash the state’s corporate income tax rate by 50 percent. But such a radical change has to be paid for, and the governor’s proposal to just take more from the casinos didn’t fly.

We agree that the casinos should be taxed at a higher rate, but eventually politicians are going to have to think of some other way to finance state government. Even Republicans didn’t go along with Branstad.

Branstad also placed a high priority on lowering the commercial property tax rate. All the months of debate led to nothing. Considering that the Democrats agreed on the ultimate goal of tax relief for business owners, it’s remarkable that the Legislature got nowhere. The Democrats proposed a different route to the goal, but it led to stalemate instead of compromise – the defining characteristic of our current political world.

The property tax problem has been toyed with for years and years, and nothing ever gets resolved. We might have to wait until one party controls the governor’s office, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and even then it might be a struggle.

Republicans also wanted to put a slogan on economic development materials: “Iowa is a Right-to-Work State.” Even that failed.

It’s just the first year of Branstad’s latest administration, so he has time to fulfill his pledges and achieve his priorities. So much is beyond his control, however.

The business world is in a trap right now. Substantial help from the government might not come until the national economy grows much stronger. And that could take a long time without help from the government.