Dan Dawson. (IA Legislature photo.)
Republican lawmakers have settled on a plan that provides about $100 million in property tax relief.
It sets up a new formula, so the property tax assessments Iowans received this spring will reduce the levies for city and county governments next year. “We use it basically to readjust the levy to the benefit of the property tax payer,” Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, said. “…The current system as it stands right now does not work for the tax payer.”
The plan would increase the property tax credit for Iowans over the age of 65 to $6500 and veterans would get a property tax exemption of $4000. The bill cleared a Senate committee Monday with bipartisan backing.
“After several years of tax cuts, we are finally addressing one of the two most regressive taxes that we have in Iowa,” Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, said during the Senate Ways and Means Committee meeting late Monday.
The package may be debated in the full Senate today.