Senator Doug Campbell says real estate tax bill offers discounts to Iowans as they age

The following is a legislative update from Republican State Senator Doug Campbell of Mason City, representing portions of Worth, Mitchell, Cerro Gordo and Floyd counties in Iowa Senate District 30:

The end of the legislative session is nearing an end as we wrapped up the fourteenth week of session!

Tax Day was on Wednesday this week, which means it has been one year since the Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 11, a constitutional amendment requiring a 2/3 majority to increase income taxes in Iowa. Since 2017, Senate Republicans have passed a number of tax relief measures to make Iowa a more affordable place for Iowans, families, and small businesses. We eliminated the inheritance tax. We eliminated taxes on retirement income. We provided relief for small businesses. On top of those reforms, we kept knocking down Iowa’s income tax rate and simplifying our tax code until we reached a 3.8 percent flat tax last year. SJR 11 is an important measure to protect the tax cuts we have passed and ensure there is an overwhelming need before more money is taken out of the pockets of Iowans.

Senate File 2472 was the Iowa Senate’s property tax overhaul to bring relief to taxpayers and reform an outdated and complicated property tax system. As we have said from the very beginning, the goal of the Senate bill is to completely overhaul and reform a system to better work for Iowans and their families, bring more stability and predictability for Iowans and small businesses, and ultimately keeps more money in the hands of Iowans instead of with the government.

While the property tax system is complicated, for Iowans this bill is simple. For every Iowan who has a home, you will get a 50 percent permanent discount on the taxable value of your home. When you turn 60 years old, you get a 60 percent discount. When you turn 70, you get a 70 percent discount, and so on. Additionally, when property inflation goes up more than 2 percent, property tax levies automatically get lowered, bringing even more relief to your property tax bills.

Senate File 2472 has a number of other important features to reform Iowa’s property tax system instead of going for band aid approaches. The Senate pursued an approach that looked at all aspects of property taxes and how we could make the system better. It eliminates the variable rollback system, which changed every single year. It implements levy rate controls and implements a property tax restriction on local taxing entities to rein in the growth of local government spending. Most importantly, it tells Iowans they deserve a better tax environment than businesses and corporations.

More than 50 percent of the population in the state of Iowa resides in rural towns that have a population of less than 500. We recognize that a cap of 2 percent is not sufficient to meet their needs. Going forward, we will have to remedy that constraint.

Other bills that were passed:

House File 2591— Open Enrollment Athletic Eligibility

House File 2670— K-12 Summative Assessments—This bill modifies the K-12 summative assessments to include social studies in the set of core academic indicators, alongside English language arts, mathematics, and science, in grades 8-10. Additionally, the bill removes language for instructional requirements related to the identification of adverse childhood experiences, multicultural and gender fair approaches, and social and emotional learning. The bill also narrows the focus of the health and personal financial literacy curriculum by defining specific areas of instruction and removing minimum subject requirements. Included changes also specify that the guidance counselor of a school district work collaboratively with the parents or guardians, in addition to the current support staff, to address academic, career, and social needs of students. All changes to the educational standards and the additional assessments for K-12 are subject to comply with state and federal education requirements.

Senate File 2219— Excused Absences for 4-H and FFA—This bill requires all school districts to grant an exempt absence when students are absent from school for an activity or project sponsored by an agricultural club or event, similar to 4-H or FFA. School districts are required to allow the student to make up any work they miss because of this absence.

House File 990—Cannabidiol Dispensaries, I voted no

Senate File 2490— Oil and Gas Development – DNR Regulatory Authority, I voted no

Blessings,

Doug Campbell