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Property tax plan passes on 2026 Iowa Legislature’s final day
The legislature has approved a plan lawmakers say will reduce property taxes for Iowa homeowners by about $4 billion over the next six years.
After almost five months of negotiations, the bill was approved Sunday in the closing hours of the 2026 Iowa legislative session. “This General Assembly came here with a purpose and the unified purpose with the Iowa governor, the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate was to provide property tax relief to Iowans,” Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, said. “Today, we deliver on that promise.”
Iowa homeowners will get a homestead tax exemption of up to $20,000 and the plan shifts $175 million in state funding to public schools. That move will also reduce taxes on all classes of property. There’s a 2% limit on annual property tax revenue growth in cities and counties, although the cap would not apply to paying debts or employee benefits and buying liability insurance.
“I firmly believe this legislation puts the Iowa property taxpayer first,” Representative Carter Nordman, a Republican from Dallas Center, said. “This is significant reform that delivers real tangible relief and certainty for the Iowa taxpayer.”
All but one Democrat in the Senate supported the plan alongside Senate Republicans, but a couple of Republicans and 20 Democrats in the House voted against it. House Democratic Leader Brian Meyer said it’s “another bandaid” on a broken property tax system. “I don’t think it’ll do much to actually lower property taxes,” Meyer said. “I don’t think people will see actual results.”
Representative Aime Wichtendahl, a Democrat from Hiawatha, called it a Frankenstein bill. “If you are a renter in Iowa, which 40% of Iowans are, you lose under this bill,” Wiochtendahl said. Multi-family units have been taxed like single-family homes for over a decade and the plan will gradually raise property taxes on apartment and condo buildings to six percent within three years. Supporters of the move say unlike a home, multi-family buildings are owned by people who’re aiming to make a profit.
The House and Senate convened early Saturday morning to begin their quest to complete the 2026 legislative session. There were long periods of inactivity in public as key lawmakers met privately, sometimes with the governor, to hammer out a property tax plan. And legislators grew weary as Saturday night became Sunday morning. “I know it’s late, but this is your final opportunity to speak on both the amendment and the bill we have before us,” Sinclair said. Bousselot replied: “It’s so late, it’s early, Madam President.”
Sleep deprived lawmakers nudged their colleagues to keep plugging away. “We don’t always get everything we want, but this bill, I think, is pretty close,” Representative Jacob Bossman said.
The Iowa House completed its work at 6:11 p.m. Sunday and the Senate adjourned nearly an hour later, at 7:07 p.m.
One of the final bills to pass the Iowa legislature this weekend requires a licensed physicial to administer abortion pills in person in a licensed health care facility. It follows a Friday night federal appeals court ruling that bans mail-order abortion pills. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, said some of the companies marketing pills through the mail are targeting “red states” like Iowa where most abortions are illegal. “Louisiana, in this case with the lawsuit. Iowa, where we’re standing. They’re aiming at my daughters, my wife. They’re aiming at my family,” Schultz said Sunday evening. “This is who we’re dealing with.”
During House debate of the bill on Friday night, Representative Jon Dunwell, a Republican from Newton, said it will ensure Iowa’s six-week abortion ban is enforced. “Every day that out of state mail order operations dispense abortion drugs to Iowans with no exam, no doctor and no oversight, the ‘heartbeat law’ this chamber passed is being eroded,” Dunwell said.
Representative Megan Srinivas, a Democrat from Des Moines, said the bill will prohibit tele-health appointments which give rural women access abortion pills. “This bill doesn’t do anything to address the problem of black market abortions because those are already illegal,” Srinivas said. “All this bill does is take away options from people in rural Iowa who have no other ability to get care.”
Representative Devon Wood, a Republican from New Market who was the bill’s flood manager, said it’s about making sure there is “informed consent” before a woman is given abortion pills. “These conversations are standard practice for any procedure, medication or treatment plan,” Wood said. “It is not difficult. It is not onerous. It is what every patient deserves.”
The bill passed the House Friday night and it was the next-to-last bill to pass the Senate on Sunday evening.
