Iowa Senate lawmakers advanced a House-passed bill prohibiting eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines, with plans from a top Senate Republican to amend the legislation with his own proposed plan, likely extending a heated debate on the issue.
The group includes 12 Democratic members between the House and Senate, and will focus on advancing legislation that protects civil rights, ensures fair treatment in the justice system and promotes equity in housing and education through collaborative work.
House Republicans want predictability and relief now, the governor wants certainty for taxpayers plus restructuring, Senate Republicans want a rebuild, and Democrats want relief without squeezing local governments as hard. The fight now is how much pain lawmakers think cities and counties can absorb in exchange for lower tax bills.
A bill that advanced out of an Iowa Legislature subcommittee this week would impose a tax on college and university endowments, and use the money generated from the tax to provide workforce grant incentive funds aimed at supporting students pursuing majors in high-wage and high-demand jobs.
More than a decade after the Iowa Legislature rejected a Board of Regents proposal to link state appropriations with performance metrics, lawmakers have revived the concept of “performance-based funding” in a new bill that would direct regents to reevaluate the incentive-driven funding formula.
Iowa House Republicans on Wednesday rolled out a property tax proposal that would cap local government revenue growth at 2 percent, create a $25,000 residential exemption, and require voter approval for more property-tax-backed debt.
He said the legislation would balance the rights of landowners while creating new ethanol markets for struggling Iowa farmers as corn prices drop.
If Iowa’s 15 community colleges are allowed to start offering four-year bachelor’s degrees — as Republican lawmakers have said is necessary and likely to happen — some of Iowa’s 27 private colleges and universities will shutter.
At the center of a legislative proposal to require undergraduate students at Iowa’s public universities to take courses on American history and American government is the question of what role lawmakers should have in a public university classroom.
Two years after changing Iowa Code to strip presidential-selection power from members of a university community, Republican legislators want to rewrite that amendment to clarify their intentions -- after a recent Iowa State University search concerned some lawmakers.
As rising costs for health care, housing and utilities strain household budgets, Iowa House Democrats are pitching a broad legislative agenda they say would lower everyday expenses and improve financial security for working families.
“This was not a priority we brought to the Legislature,” Emily Shields, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy association Community Colleges for Iowa, told the House Higher Education Committee on Wednesday. “But then we studied it for a year, and the need is undeniable.”
Clean water advocate and author Chris Jones announced he is formally launching a campaign for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, centering his bid on what he calls Iowa’s worsening water-quality crisis and the influence of industrial agribusiness.
Renewed action on property tax relief, a tougher approach to repeat violent crime, state spending, affordability and bipartisan calls for cooperation and civility were among the pledges and requests made by leaders during the first day of the 2026 session on Monday.
Educators are again asking for an increase of 5 percent in funding for Iowa public schools, saying it’s crucial for keeping up with inflation, managing increased operating costs and making up for decades of underfunding amid statewide declining school enrollment.
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