Now emerging for Iowa lawmakers: taxes, child care aid, state budget

DES MOINES — The remarkable number of bills introduced in this year’s session of the Iowa Legislature has been whittled down some by last week’s first legislative “funnel” deadline.

With roughly two months left in the regular session that started in January, Iowa lawmakers’ work now increasingly will focus on tax policies and spending considerations that were not subject to the first deadline.

Legislators will return to work Monday with fewer bills out of the more than 2,000 filed so far eligible for consideration for the remainder of the session after the funnel — which halted bills that did not get passed out of a committee from proceeding.

The only new law passed thus far is the removal of gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, pushed by Republicans who have comfortable majorities in each legislative chamber.

House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, said House Republicans’ focus in the coming weeks will turn more to fiscal policies.

“We’ve continued to come in and try to address the issues that we think are extremely important. Now some of those are going to be cost of living, for example, issues that we’ve been talking about. You’re going to start seeing more of those conversations,” Grassley told reporters late last week at the Iowa Capitol. “We consider property tax to be kind of the driver in tax relief for Iowans this year.”

Key Republican lawmakers in both chambers last week introduced their proposal to address Iowans’ rising property taxes. The proposal would, among many provisions, use state funding to cover public school funding currently being paid for with property taxes and cap future taxable revenue growth for cities.

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Grassley said House Republicans also plan to address costs associated with child care and adoption through tax credits.

“You’re going to see us filing some more bills through the tax policy committees, looking at child care tax credits, for example,” Grassley said. “We know that’s a tremendous cost on Iowans. We’re working on a bill right now that would expand access to who’s qualifying for that. Right now it’s capped out at $90,000 (of) joint income. We’re looking at a bill that may raise that.”

House Democrats last month proposed legislation to address child care costs. The Democrats’ bill, House File 661, would expand eligibility for the state’s child care assistance program, increase the state child and dependent tax credit and remove the income limit, and provides a small business child care tax credit to boost child care workers’ wages and benefits.

Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, this past week criticized agenda-setting Republicans’ approach during the roughly first two months of the legislative session so far.

“It’s really ironic, and it would be sort of funny if it wasn’t so sad, because so many Iowans are clamoring for things that will help their budgets every day, and there have not been many bills that have been passed out of subcommittee or that are continuing on that will do that,” Konfrst said.

Also on legislators’ to-do list is crafting state spending for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Gov. Kim Reynolds in January proposed a $9.4 billion state general fund budget, which includes the proposed use of some of the state’s reserve accounts as state revenue wanes from recently enacted state income tax reductions.

Lawmakers will have a better understanding of the revenue available to them for the next budget year when the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference meets this week to reveal its latest projections.

And legislators are well past due their self-imposed deadline to set state funding for K-12 education for the 2025-2026 school year. State law requires school funding to be set during the first 30 days of the legislative session; that deadline passed in mid-February.

Reynolds and Senate Republicans have proposed a 2 percent increase in state school funding. House Republicans have proposed a 2.25 percent increase, plus another $22.6 million in general aid to assist schools with inflationary costs.

Democrats in both chambers proposed a 5 percent increase.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, said Senate Democrats would like to focus on workers and workers’ rights. She highlighted bills introduced by Senate Democrats that would address wage theft, unemployment benefits and collective bargaining rights for public employees.

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“It's time we prioritize the men and women who make our state run by restoring employees’ voices and focusing on the needs of hardworking Iowans,” Weiner said last week. “It is time to give Iowa’s workers a better deal after years of lax workplace protections, the gutting of collective bargaining rights, and reduced unemployment benefits. Iowa Democrats have always been the party of working Iowans, and we are proud to continue standing in solidarity with the workers who power our state’s economic engine.”

Weiner also said there are topics on which Democrats in the minority hope to work with majority Republicans. She noted legislation regarding a prohibition of cellphones in K-12 classrooms during instruction time, a ban on ticket purchasing bots, cancer treatment benefits for firefighters and lead service line disclosures.

“There are some good things that are moving forward. I wish there were more,” Weiner said. “There are some good things that we will continue working with our Republican colleagues on.”

The next legislative funnel, by which bills must be passed out of one chamber and a committee in the opposite chamber, is April 4.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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