This is the 11th week of the 2026 Iowa Legislative session and top leaders have said completing their work in late April is the goal, but agreements on two major issues remain elusive.
Republicans, including Governor Kim Reynolds, have said reducing property taxes is their top priority this year, but House Republicans and Senate Republicans have offered vastly different proposals. Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh said aiming for a consensus takes time. “We’re starting to narrow down those conversations,” he said during a news conference late last week.
House Republicans have folded some of the ideas from Governor Reynolds ideas and Senate Republicans into their proposal, but House Speaker Pat Grassley said there’s no agreement among the key players yet, “but I do think that this is a step in the right for us to work toward providing certainty and relief and I feel confident we’ll find a way to get something passed this session.”
The House passed a bill in January to forbid the use of eminent domain to seize land for carbon pipeline projects. Grassley told reporters House Republicans feel strongly the legislature needs to act. “We’re going to continue to look for ways in which we can find some compromise,” Grassley said.
An alternative proposed by the Senate’s Republican has yet to come up for debate in the Senate — and Klimesh said the hunt for “middle ground” continues. “Look, I mean we’ve spent four or five years having these conversations up here and they’re complicated conversations and I know that I’ve been questioned: ‘Well, you’re not moving.’ We are moving,” Klimesh said. “I mean I meet weekly with stakeholders on both sides of the issue.”
Republicans control a majority of seats in the legislature and decide what bills get passed. House Minority Leader Brian Meyer said it appears House and Senate Republicans have a lot of work to do before they reach agreements on property taxes and the future of the carbon pipeline. “At some point something has to give and they have to start working together to get this done,” Meyer said.
Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said she’s surprised Republicans didn’t have a plan hashed out already. “There are Iowans who truly need relief from property taxes,” Weiner said, “…and we are now into that period in the session when we really need to focus on the budget.”
The legislature’s primary duty, every year, is to develop a spending plan for state government.