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Five issues to watch during the 2025 Iowa legislative session
Property tax cuts and changes to Iowa’s higher education system among majority Republicans’ priorities
Jan. 13, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Jan. 13, 2025 7:39 am
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Property tax cuts, changes to Iowa’s higher education system and a statewide policy over cellphone use in schools are among the priorities state lawmakers intend to tackle when the Iowa Legislature convenes today for the 2025 session.
Republicans — who have had control of the state lawmaking process since 2017 — will have a 34-15 majority in the Senate and a 67-33 majority in the House when legislators convene. A special election will be held later his month for the Senate seat previously held by Republican Chris Cournoyer, the new lieutenant governor.
Here are five issues to watch during the 2025 legislative session.
Property tax cuts
Iowa Republican lawmakers say they’re not done finding ways to lower property taxes across the state.
Republican leadership in the House and Senate said Iowans should expect to see further action that limits property tax collections by cities, counties, school districts and other entities during the upcoming legislative session.
Statehouse Republicans said rising property tax costs were a recurring concern brought up by voters while they campaigned ahead of the November 2024 general election. But lawmakers have yet to present a specific plan or proposals to the public.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, and Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, chair of the House tax policy committee, said "everything is on the table" when it comes to efforts to reduce property taxes.
“My objective, and what I'm trying to steer the conversation toward is, how do we get certainty for the property taxpayer?” Grassley asked during an interview. “… I think that the system right now is skewed toward the taxing entities. And so what I want to see us do is to come up with something very bold.”
House and Senate Democrats said they are cautiously supportive of further property tax reforms.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said any proposal must ensure that property tax cuts do not lead to increased taxes elsewhere and don’t handcuff local governments’ ability to function and make decisions best for their communities.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has not shared details about her proposals for the 2025 legislative session. She’ll deliver her Condition of the State Address to lawmakers outlining her legislative agenda on Tuesday.
Reynolds declined to be interviewed for The Gazette’s legislative preview series, which ends today.
Statewide school cellphone policy
Reynolds announced in November a proposal she plans to present to state lawmakers that would bar K-12 students from having their cellphones in the classroom.
Many Eastern Iowa schools have been exploring adopting new policies around cellphones, mirroring a national trend of school districts — and even states — restricting students’ cellphone use in schools.
Legislative leaders agree the state should set a minimum requirement for cellphone policies in schools that allows districts to implement more restrictions as needed.
“We want uninterrupted learning. We want kids to have the opportunity to set aside distractions and focus on what makes them the best person they can be,” Senate President Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton, said.
Last month, the Iowa City school board approved a cellphone policy that requires phones, earbuds and headphones to be “detached from the student’s body” during instructional time.
The Cedar Rapids district also is researching cellphones in schools and potential policies, Grover said.
Iowa City and Cedar Rapids school leaders say that they would be supportive of a statewide cellphone policy as long as it is flexible.
Enforcement of a statewide cellphone policy is “going to be an issue,” Konfrst said.
"We can’t give teachers one more thing they have to do in the classroom that is outside of teaching. Of course, we can support kids not on their phones in the classroom. It’s all about the details,“ she said.
But, Konfrst said, “if we think this is going to fix bullying, problems with social media and address student mental health, that is simply not going to happen.”
New higher education committee
Expect a heavier hand and closer scrutiny from House Republican lawmakers this session over Iowa’s colleges and universities — not just its public institutions but its dozens of private campuses getting millions through the Iowa Tuition Grant Program.
A new legislative committee will deal specifically with higher education policy in Iowa.
House Republicans created the new House Higher Education Committee, which will deal with bills “containing significant reforms to Iowa’s higher education system,” House Republicans said in a new release.
Rep. Taylor Collins, a Republican from Mediapolis who has been forefront on the House GOP’s work to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Iowa’s public universities and other conservative higher education reforms, will chair the new committee.
“I think everything is on the table,” Speaker of the House Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, told The Gazette about what he’s told Collins and other lawmakers he’s appointed to the new higher ed committee.
“If we're going to take on big things, we have to be bold in what we're going to try to do,” he said. “And so the creation of that committee, partially, was because I felt like we weren't able to give full effort to some of our higher education issues."
Driving the committee’s focus this session will be meeting Iowa’s workforce needs, according to Grassley.
“We need to make sure that the taxpayer investment that we're making into higher education globally — this isn't just us picking on the regents … but higher education globally — is are we getting the value for the taxpayer to help fill the high-demand fields that we have all across the state,” Grassley said, acknowledging the committee likely will look at possible changes to the 56-year-old Iowa Tuition Grant — established to aid instate students at Iowa’s private colleges and universities.
Casino moratorium
Among the first bills Iowa lawmakers could take up is a moratorium blocking the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission from awarding new gaming licenses in Iowa, which would thwart Cedar Rapids casino backers' hopes for a new $275 million facility.
Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, chair of the House tax policy Ways and Means Committee, said he intends to move a bill out of committee as early as the second week of session.
Kaufmann told The Gazette he expects the bill to look similar to the one that quickly passed the Iowa House with bipartisan support in the waning, early morning hours on the last day of the 2024 legislative session. The Iowa Senate, however, adjourned without taking up the five-year moratorium advanced by House lawmakers.
The bill amended and passed by the House — Senate File 2427 — would have tightened restrictions and imposed rules for issuing new licenses through June 30, 2029, which would have blocked the state gaming commission from approving a Cedar Rapids casino.
The state’s existing casinos support a moratorium, saying Iowa’s casino market — with 19 commercial casinos and four tribal casinos spread across the state — is saturated and that a new facility would cannibalize revenues from other Iowa casinos and dilute, not increase, the state’s gambling market.
Casino backers say the state’s second-largest city should be allowed to benefit from gaming the same as other communities, and that growth in Iowa’s gaming industry and competition from neighboring states could make the proposed Cedar Crossing more relevant.
Lawmakers have a short window to pass and have Gov. Kim Reynolds' sign a bill into law. The five-member gaming commission is set to vote Feb. 6 on awarding a license for a Linn County casino.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission twice has rejected proposals — in 2014 and 2017 — to bring a casino to Cedar Rapids.
School threat assessment teams
The Iowa Legislature convenes just after the anniversary of a shooting at the Perry Middle and High School that killed a sixth-grade student and a principal and injured six others. The gunman, a 17-year-old student, killed himself.
Under legislation proposed by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, school systems would be allowed to create multidisciplinary threat assessment teams to protect students and school staff when a student exhibits behavior that might threaten their safety.
The proposed legislation would authorize school districts, accredited non-public schools, charter schools and innovation zone schools to create these threat assessment teams. It also would allow collaboration between schools and government agencies to provide services to K-12 students who are “experiencing or at risk of an emotional disturbance or mental illness, or who pose an articulable and significant threat to the health and safety of any person.”
Threat assessment teams could include local law enforcement officials, representatives from Juvenile Court Services, mental health professionals, social services representatives and school officials. The proposal would allow teams to coordinate resources and share records or information. It also would protect the team members who report information related to school safety from civil liability.
The proposal comes as more states require schools to create threat assessment teams to prevent violence in schools.
Gazette reporters Vanessa Miller and Grace King contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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