KDSN RADIO News
Iowa GOP lawmakers plan for property tax cuts
Republican lawmakers are promising to product a plan that reduces property taxes. House Republican Leader Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley says legislators heard complaints about property taxes repeatedly during the 2024 campaign.
“People want to make sure that their homes are affordable,” Windschitl said Tuesday, “and if they made the investment into their homes, that they’re not getting taxed out of them.”
The Republican-led legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds have passed five tax reduction bills in the past six years, mainly focused on cutting income taxes for individuals and corporations, although some adjustments in property taxes were included in a bill the governor signed into law this past year.
Windschitl indicated that previously passed cap on property tax growth will be part of this year’s discussions. “There are a lot of different players that are going to need to be around the table to figure out how we do this,” Windschitl said, “and how we do it appropriately.”
Senator Mike Bousselot, a Republican from Ankeny, said Iowans are seeing big increases in property taxes collected by cities and counties. “An average of a more than 7% increase for counties and 6% for cities? That’s money out of property taxpayers’ pockets. It’s money out of Iowans’ pockets and it’s making it more expensive to live in Iowa,” Bousselot said Tuesday. “We have to address that this session. We will address that this session.”
Bousselot and Windshitl made their comments during a forum sponsored by the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which represents chambers of commerce in 11 counties.
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, who also spoke at the forum, said if the property tax cuts are too deep, it may leave cities “high and dry” when the time comes to pay for the roads. “We’re listening to local community leaders because they know their cities best,” Konfrst said, “and they’re a little tired of getting big policies handed down from Des Moines that hurt their local community.”
During remarks at the forum, Senate Democratic Leader-elect Janice Weiner said she believes in “local control” — giving officials at the city and county level authority to do their jobs. “We heard from local communities during the last round of property tax reform,” Weiner said. “They came in from the very beginning to express their concern that there were local priorities that needed to be funded.”
Weiner served on the city council in Iowa City before winning a seat in the Iowa Senate in 2022. She was elected in November to replace Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum in January. Jochum did not seek reelection to the legislature.
In early September, House Speaker Pat Grassley told Radio Iowa that property tax reform would be House Republicans’ top priority in 2025.
