Capitol Notebook: Kaufmann to lead House tax policy committee

DES MOINES — Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, is the new chairman of the Iowa House’s committee on tax policy, House Republicans announced Tuesday.

Kaufmann was appointed to the post by House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford. As committee chairman, he succeeds Rep. Lee Klein, R-Monticello, who will not return to the Iowa Legislature next year after being defeated in the Republican primary elections in June.

Kaufmann has served on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee since 2017. He has previously served as chairman of the House committees on state government and government oversight.

“Rep. Hein is leaving big shoes to fill and I am grateful for my years of experience on the committee with him at the helm,” Kaufmann said in a statement. “As the Biden administration has Iowans struggling to keep up with rising inflation and unprecedented gas prices, the job of ensuring Iowans keep more of their hard-earned paychecks has become all the more important. As Chairman of Ways and Means, I will make it my mission to deliver a tax code that favors everyday Iowans and find additional opportunities to ease the tax burden on Iowans.”

Republicans have agenda-setting majorities in both the Iowa House and Senate going into this fall’s general election.

TRANSPORTATION FUNDING: Four public transit infrastructure projects received a total of $1.5 million in funding from the state transportation department at its meeting in Ames.

From the state Public Transit Infrastructure Grant Program, the Iowa Department of Transportation awarded:

The projects were selected out of seven applications requesting more than $5.6 million, a DOT official said.

Gazette Des Moines Bureau