DES MOINES (AP) -- Questions are being raised about a last-minute amendment to a budget bill that deals with special 1-cent sales taxes that voters have approved in hundreds of Iowa cities.

Under the change, approved April 25 by the House and Senate with little or no debate, the taxes that were approved for such things as road and sewer improvements could be used to give tax breaks to developers.

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, now wants to know if the change violates Iowa's constitution.

"It's those kinds of changes where you're taking power out of the hands of voters that deserve to be debated in the light of day," Rants said. "It's the kind of thing that there ought to, at least, be a committee hearing on."

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, who managed the 35-page amendment, acknowledged that the issue probably deserved more debate.

"Sometimes it's just a glitch in the process," Dvorsky said.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he was the "primary impetus" behind the change because his hometown is interested in the plan.

Several taxpayer watchdog groups want Gov. Chet Culver to veto the plan.

"This bill allows cities to use a bait-and-switch on their citizens," Michael King, president of the Iowa State Association of Counties, wrote in a May 2 letter to Culver.