The 2025 Iowa legislature convenes later this morning and Republican lawmakers say setting new limits on property taxes is their top priority.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, said it’s time for a broad conversation that shifts the focus to providing certainty for property tax payers.
“I also want to be very aggressive and bold in our approach to this,” Grassley said during an interview “Iowans have an expectation and they’ve seen from the legislature when we work on big things, we’ve been able to achieve results.”
House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, said during the 2024 campaign, lawmakers heard from property owners in “every corner” of the state.
“People want to make sure that their homes are affordable and if they’ve made the investment into their homes that they’re not being taxed out of them,” Windschitl told reporters last month after a forum sponsored by the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “They also want to make sure that if they are paying property taxes that they are being used for the appropriate purposes that property taxes should be used for.”
Republican Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. It’s where a property tax bill would first be considered.
“Everything’s on the table intentionally so that all options can be considered,” Kaufmann said during a Radio Iowa interview. “I’ve been having many meetings with the affected stakeholders — cities, counties and planning on meeting with education folks and then, of course, we’ll narrow things down, but only after we’ve had productive conversations about what should or should not be included or eliminated from the bill.”
Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a Republican from Ankeny, said it’s time for a “holistic review” of Iowa’s complicated property tax system.
“It’s something we hear about on the campaign trail,” Whitver told Radio Iowa, “and we want to be responsive to Iowans.”
Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Like other GOP lawmakers, he told Radio Iowa a wide array of options will be considered, but Dawson said the focus must be on the taxpayers, not the tax collectors.
“To ensure that some relief gets to those property tax owners out there, we’re going to have to either improve upon what we already have in place to look at going to a different model,” Dawson said.
Dawson indicated property tax credits may also be part of the conversation.
Democrats say they’re interested in providing property tax relief, but House Minonrity Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, said city and county officials as well as school board members need to be consulted.
“The needs of Ackley are not the same as the needs of Ankeny,” Konfrst said during a forum sponsored by the Iowa Capitol Press Association, “so sometimes I wonder about these one-size-fits-all solutions.”
Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, said property tax changes approved two years ago are already having an effect.
“Whether the community is large or small, whether the county is large or small in terms of population, everybody that I’ve talked to realizes they’re coming into a very difficult budget year right now,” Weiner said last week at the same forum.
All types of property in Iowa are assessed in odd-numbered years — like this year, 2025 — and assessment notices must be mailed to property owners by April 1.