Taxes 3/22
- indivisiblecria
- Mar 21
- 2 min read
Overall summary of this week:
Currently there are three Republican bills being evaluated. Each bill below includes an article with an assessment of the bill as a resource to help with citizens’ understanding. At this point, no endorsement is provided to the overall budget, however, we have made one additional entry from last week--SF2464 a tax on health insurance companies.
For more information about the status of property tax legislation, see the article in The Gazette.
SF2464 (OPPOSE)
This bill is not property tax, but a tax that raises taxes on health insurance companies which will undoubtedly be passed on to Iowa citizens. This bill also allows an increase in the amount that may be borrowed from the Taxpayer Relief Fund, TPRF, so that increased deficits are allowed while still claiming that the legislature has carried over a surplus.
This bill has passed out of committee and is eligible for debate in the Senate.
HSB596 (Neutral)
This is the House Version. According to Iowa Public Radio, The bill (HSB 596) would prevent city and county revenue from growing more than 2% each year. The limit would not apply to new construction, school funding or revenue that’s required to repay debt.
Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities (nonprofit serving as a unified voice of cities, providing advocacy training and guidance to strengthen Iowa’s communities), said he appreciates property tax bills being released early in the legislative session because that gives cities time to evaluate the impact before taking formal positions on the proposals. He said cities agree that reducing the burden on taxpayers is a worthy objective, and they share the goal of making property taxes more affordable and predictable.
“Cities do have concerns about proposals that place strict limits on local revenue growth, which over time can slow service delivery, delay replacement of aging infrastructure, weaken economic development efforts and reduce communities’ ability to respond to emergencies and natural disasters — especially as costs for materials, equipment, labor and insurance continue to rise,” Kemp said.
SSB3001 (Neutral)
This is the Senate Version. According to Iowa Starting Line: "The proposed Iowa SSB3001 bill aims to significantly impact property taxes for homeowners by shifting the responsibility for basic school costs from local property taxes to the state. This change would result in a reduction of the school property tax rate from $5.40 to $4.49 per $1,000 of property value. While this proposal would limit the size of property tax bills, it also means that the most important funding decisions for districts would be made in Des Moines by the Legislature and governor, rather than by the districts themselves. This could lead to fewer options for homeowners to offset the costs of property taxes."
