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The impact of this year’s legislative session
Iowa lawmakers reshaped education and state government, restricted transgender youth and property taxes — and more
DES MOINES — Over the past four months under the Iowa State Capitol’s golden dome, state lawmakers reshaped Iowa’s education system and the structure of the state government, placed new restrictions on transgender youth, and put restraints on city, school and county collection of property taxes.
With a governor invigorated from a landslide election victory and larger Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the party was able to enact a more dramatically conservative policy agenda than in years past.
Republican leaders celebrated the “historic” session as it wrapped up shortly after noon Thursday, saying they followed through on nearly all of their campaign promise.
Democrats skewered the majority party for passing bills they said targeted LGBTQ youth and weakened and politicized Iowa schools.
Here is a look at eight major bills that passed during the session and how they will affect Iowans. Some already are signed into law, while the others likely will become law in the coming weeks after Gov. Kim Reynolds signs them.
Education savings accounts
Lawmakers began the session with a flurry of work to enact one of the most expansive private school choice programs in the country, sending a bill to Reynolds in January, two weeks after the session’s opening day.
The law, Reynolds’ top legislative priority of the session, will allow any parent to access a taxpayer-funded education savings account valued at $7,600 — the state’s full per-pupil school spending — to pay for private school expenses.
Applications for the savings accounts will open May 31, and they will be accessible for the upcoming school year for all public school students and lower-income students already attending private schools. The program will be open to all public and private school students by 2027, when it is expected to cost $345 million annually.
Reynolds said Thursday the program was “transformational education reform that kicked off a national school choice revolution.”
Democrats vehemently opposed the law, saying it will siphon money from public schools and allow discrimination against students with disabilities. Democratic leaders said Thursday they were going to closely watch the program to ensure it is not being misused. They pointed to some private schools that have raised their tuition since the bill’s passage.
“That is not the intent of the legislation. I’m disappointed Republicans didn’t see that and try to protect families who are accepting school vouchers,” said Democratic House leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights.
Government reorganization
The structure of Iowa’s government was overhauled with the passage of a 1,600-page bill that consolidated the number of Cabinet-level state departments from 37 to 16, cut vacant jobs and restructured agency duties.
Reynolds pitched the bill, Senate File 514, as a way to shrink state government and save money while improving services for Iowans. The governor’s office expects the realignment to save the state $215 million by combining services and eliminating vacant positions.
Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, R-Northwood, who managed the bill in the House, said the bill was needed to streamline Iowa's government. She said the realignment may need further attention next year as lawmakers see the impacts.
“There’s too many departments, too many redundancies,” she said. “And I think this will streamline. We’ll be more efficient, and we’ll save money.”
Democrats opposed many portions of the bill, proposing dozens of amendments to reinstate departments that were subsumed or to return certain employees to a merit system. They argued it consolidated too much power under Reynolds and was passed without enough time for public scrutiny.
School and library restrictions
Reynolds is expected to sign into law an education policy bill that puts new restrictions on LGBTQ topics in public schools and library books, part of Republicans’ attempts to rein in what they see as inappropriate content in schools.
Senate File 496 will:
- Ban discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through sixth grade.
- Ban books with descriptions or depictions of sex acts from school libraries.
- Require schools to notify parents if a student requests changing their name or pronouns.
- Allow parents to review and request removal of instructional materials in the classroom.
- Require parents’ permission for a student to participate in any survey that asks about specific topics.
Democrats and LGBTQ advocates said the changes will sever the trust between students and their teachers, needlessly restrict school libraries and block the teaching about historical LGBTQ figures.
But House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said the bill, and other education measures approved throughout the session, were responses to concerns brought to Republican lawmakers by parents and school administrators.
“The Legislature did not wade into that argument or that debate,” he said. “It was started at the school district level and brought to us as the Legislature.”
Property taxes
A top Republican priority that remained elusive until the last days of the session was a bill to cut property taxes, which Reynolds signed into law Thursday.
Lawmakers eventually agreed on a law — House File 718 — that will consolidate city levy rates and require cities and counties to lower their rates if taxable value rises above a set percentage, which Republicans estimate will cut property taxes by $100 million.
The law also will require cities to send detailed explanations of a property owner’s tax bill and require bond referendums to be held during a November election.
The bill passed nearly unanimously — Iowa City Rep. Elinor Levin, a Democrat, was the sole no vote in both chambers — and Democrats said it would lower tax bills for middle-class Iowans.
“I can’t think of a better way to end a legislative session than adjourning just a few minutes ago and now coming down for a bill signing of the most significant property tax cut that we have ever had in our state’s history,” Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, said when Reynolds signed the bill.
Gender-affirming care ban
Following the lead of Republican states around the country, Iowa Republicans passed a bill to ban transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. Reynolds signed the bill into law shortly after its passage.
Supporters of the law, Senate File 538, said minors are too young to make potentially irreversible decisions about medical care, and some said gender dysphoria is a temporary phase that most children grow out of.
“If you’re 18 years of age and you want to have the hormone therapies and the surgeries, great,” said Rep. Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison who managed the bill.
“I think it is important to protect children because I think all the data out there supports the decision we made.”
The law contradicted the advice of major medical associations and doctors who testified before a House committee, saying health interventions for transgender youth are science-backed and happen after months of careful consideration in consultation with doctors and parents.
Democrats, and some Republicans, voted against the bill, saying it would put transgender youth at risk of mental health problems and suicide.
Bathroom bill
Lawmakers also passed, and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed, a law that requires people in K-12 schools to use the restroom that aligns with their biological sex, barring transgender students from the restrooms that match their gender identity.
Republican supporters said Senate File 482 would protect students who are uncomfortable sharing a private space with a transgender student, but opponents said it ostracizes and discriminates against transgender students.
Schools must offer accommodations to students who would like to use single-user restrooms.
Democrats said after the session ended they would not be surprised to see more legislation targeting transgender and LGBTQ Iowans in the next session.
“The Republican disrespect for LGBTQ Iowans should make every person ashamed in this Legislature,” said Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville.
“I was proud to see Democrats stand up for basic freedoms and rights, stand up for parental rights and stand up for the LGBTQ community.”
Child labor
After hours of fierce debate — including one that lasted all night and into the following morning — Republican lawmakers passed a bill that will allow teenagers to work more jobs and later hours.
The bill, Senate File 542, was opposed by labor unions and Democrats, who said it would put children in dangerous workplace environments and did not do enough to hold employers liable.
While they ultimately voted against it, House Democrats were able work with Republicans to amend what they saw as the most egregious parts of the bill. The amendment rolled back provisions allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to be provided waivers to work in certain jobs and prohibited sex offenders from employing minors, among other things.
Konfrst, the House minority leader, said she was happy Republicans were willing to work with Democrats to address their concerns.
“It's not the bill we would have passed; We wouldn't have done the bill,” she said. “We made it a little better because the importance of bipartisanship shone through on both sides.”
Reynolds has not yet signed the bill, but she said she supports it and that it would allow young people to develop a work ethic and prepare for a career.
“I can’t even really understand all of the hoopla about it,” she told reporters Thursday. “It doesn’t seem like very much common sense … people are perplexed, literally perplexed, at why we would care if kids want to work or not.”
Public assistance
In an effort to rein in state spending on public assistance programs, Republican lawmakers passed a bill that would disqualify families from federal food and health assistance — programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid — if they have assets totaling $15,000 or a second vehicle worth more than $10,000.
The legislation, Senate File 494, also would require recipients to complete a computerized questionnaire and require recipients of SNAP and Medicaid to comply with any child support payments.
Critics of the bill said it will disqualify thousands of people from public assistance programs that need them to get by, but supporters said it would make the programs more efficient.
According to an analysis from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, about 1 percent of people will be kicked off their benefits if the bill becomes law — around 8,000 Medicaid recipients and 2,800 SNAP recipients.
Comments: CMcCullough@qctimes.com
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