Governor Terry Branstad says he thinks the details are nearly hammered out on a plan to reduce both income and commercial property taxes in Iowa.

“Property tax is the biggest and most significant part of it, but there are priorities for both the House Republicans and Senate Democrats as well as the property tax that we’ve been working on for a long time,” Branstad told reporters late this afternoon.

Branstad, a Republican, made commercial property tax relief a cornerstone of his 2010 campaign. The governor and legislators of both parties have been wrangling over the proper way to accomplish that goal for the past two and a half years.

“People never quit this time,” Branstad says. “They stayed with it and, I mean, I think it takes patience and tenacity to get significant things accomplished.”

Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal is not ready to declare the deal done. He won’t he discuss the details, either, but his public statements suggest there’s progress.

“Closer than last week,” Gronstal told reporters this morning.

In addition to a reduction in commercial property tax rates, legislators have been considering a new, two percent limit on future property tax increases for homes and farmland. Under current law the increase can be four percent. House Republicans have been pressing for a new income tax credit that would return part of a state budget surplus to taxpayers. Senate Democrats have been pressing for an increase in an income tax credit that helps low-income Iowans.

Last year’s tax-cutting discussions included the idea of reclassifying apartments as residential rather than commercial property, providing a 50 percent reduction in assessments.

There are only a handful of legislators at the state capitol today, but key leaders say progress is being made behind the scenes.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, says the goal is to complete the 2013 legislative session soon.

“We’ve still got some work ahead of us, but we believe we can be done this week,” Paulsen says. “…The dominoes are going to start falling. Sometimes it ends up being a budget piece. Sometimes it ends up being a policy piece, but my expectation is you’re going to start seeing that exact thing happen here in short order.”

Governor Terry Branstad suggests private talks may soon yield a compromise on education reform as well as the outline of a deal to adjust the state’s property tax system.

“There’s a lot of work to be done. It would be wonderful if they could get it done in this week,” Branstad told reporters this morning. “We certainly want to see it completed in this month.”

Legislators could walk away from a variety of policy proposals, but their primary duty is to draft a state budget. Lawmakers haven’t yet agreed on how big the budget should be, Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs has been in private meetings all day to discuss the budget and he gave this brief update to reporters early this afternoon: “Closer than last week.”

Last week’s estimate from a key Democrat indicated Republicans wanted to spend about $300 million less in the next state fiscal year than Democrats do. Legislators will not meet tomorrow, but both the House and Senate are scheduled to convene on Wednesday. Leaders indicate that’s when the “final push” will begin.