JOHNSTON, Iowa — The 91st General Assembly of the Iowa Legislature is just over a month away, but state lawmakers are already tipping their hands to what will be major priorities.
Property tax rates have attempted to be tackled by elected officials, but the voters message to doorknockers during election season was that more reform is needed.
“We don’t want people property taxed out of their homes,” said House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl (R), District 15 from Missouri Valley. “We heard that repeatedly throughout the entire state. It didn’t matter which corner you came from.”
At the Greater Des Moines Partnership 2024 Legislative Leadership Breakfast, party leaders descended on Johnston to answer questions from partnership members and look at the organization’s priorities for this session. One issue stood out among the rest.
“They’ve gotten more and more revenue over the past decade. And that’s come from people who own homes. People who own businesses,” said State Senator Mike Bousselot (R), District 21 from Ankeny. “You know, it’s like that child care example I gave you. $14,000 increase in child, in property tax paid expenses for that one business in one year. That makes it more expensive to run that business, more expensive to provide child care. That’s true. We’re caring about are those property tax payers.”
The minority party had leaders from both chambers at the breakfast as well, agreeing with the idea that the state needs some type of property tax reform. But Iowa Democrats do not think that property tax changes all need to happen from state government.
“We heard from local communities during the last round of property tax reform. They came in from the very beginning to express their concern that there were really, there were local priorities that needed to be funded,” said Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, (D) District 45 from Iowa City.
Two sessions ago lawmakers passed legislation that capped the amount a city could increase property taxes annually, but some worried about the impact of smaller communities being able to control their own local budgets.
“We’re making sure that we’re listening to local community leaders because they know their cities best and they’re a little tired of getting big policies handed down from Des Moines that hurt their local communities,” said House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, (D) District 32 from Windsor Heights.
Leader Windschitl said that a bill might not actually make it through both chambers this session if solutions and agreements cannot all happen within the session’s 100 days.
Other topics discussed at the breakfast included workforce development, affordable housing and the new higher education committee that will be in the Iowa House chamber for the 2025 session.
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