Iowa lawmakers adjourn 2012 session

DES MOINES – Iowa lawmakers adjourned their 2012 session today without resolving differences over commercial property tax relief.

The Iowa Senate passed a “sine die” adjournment resolution at 5:23 p.m. and the Iowa House followed with adjournment at 6:13 p.m.

Lawmakers spent the session's 122 day putting the finishing touches on a $6.244 billion budget for fiscal 2013 and a redesign of Iowa's county-based mental health system.

Leaders of the House and Senate met with Gov. Terry Branstad during the afternoon in hopes of finding compromise on a plan to reduce commercial property taxes while limiting growth for other property classes and providing state “backfill” money to cushion the potential loss of revenue to local governments. However, those talks failed to produce a resolution to an issue that the governor and both Republicans and Democrats in the split-control Legislature had identified as they top priority for the 2012 session.

“The only option is if the governor wants to call a special session,” said Sen. Brad Zaun, minority whip of the Senate GOP miniority.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said the property tax negotiations got caught up in partisan politics and results in lawmakers walking away from a proposal that left $350 million in potential property tax relief “on the table.”

“I'm willing to continue to work with him and continue to work with the House and look for common ground and if we can find some I'll continue to have meetings with him. If we can find some, he can call us back into special session,” Gronstal said in an interview.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said it was “regrettable” that majority House Republicans and majority Senate Democrats couldn't come together on an agreement to cut business taxes. He pledged to continue to work to find common ground during the interim and pledged that Republicans would be back next year with a proposal to cut Iowans' taxes by $390 million – using the $90 million in a new taxpayer trust account and the state's projected $300 million ending balance.

Branstad thanked the 84th General Assembly for considering his administration's priorities and for adopting a significant number of them.

“However, the 2012 session may be remembered as much for what failed to be accomplished as for what actually was accomplished,” the governor said in a statement. “Despite the best efforts of my office and a bipartisan majority in the Iowa House, the inability of Senate Democrats to adopt serious property tax reform has put Iowa taxpayers in jeopardy of seeing significant property tax increases in the coming year.

“The Senate failed to support legislation based on the framework I believe was agreed to as a roadmap to finding a compromise between my office, the House, and the Senate.  They failed to pass a meaningful step forward in our goal to make Iowa's tax system more competitive or assist with our critically needed job creation goals,” he added. “As a result, Iowa taxpayers face yet another year with property taxes that are scheduled to grow nearly $2 billion over the next eight years.  This is absolutely unacceptable and Iowa voters will have an opportunity to resolve this impasse in November.”

Gronstal said it appeared the property tax impasse was driven more by partisan than policy considerations.

“I think they made the decision last week let's play politics with this instead of trying to get this done. I think that's abundantly clear,” he said.

In his prepared closing remarks, Gronstal noted that he opened the second year of the 84

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General Assembly on Jan. 2 by setting a goal of a “short, productive session.”

“I got it half right,” he said. The majority leader listed a number of accomplishments for the 2012 session but he also conceded “We could have done more.”

Senate GOP Leader Jerry Behn of Boone, who missed much of the session's final week due to a health problem, issued a closing statement lamenting the lack of action to improve the state's business climate.

“Did we provide the measurable results that Iowa taxpayers deserve this session?” Behn said in his statement. “In most cases, we did not. When it comes to job creation, property tax relief, world-class education and government rule and regulation reform, this Legislature failed to make the necessary strides that hardworking Iowans deserved.”

Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, who is retiring after a long legislative career, said he was disappointed that the property tax compromise couldn't pass on a bipartisan basis. He noted that the Statehouse has become “a very partisan climate and it's getting more partisan and that disappoints me.”