Government : Hello, Iowa House District 84 from the State Capitol!

Members of the Iowa House passed approximately 26 bills this last week, with over half of the bills having at least 90% ayes for votes.

One of the bills passed was Senate File 2168, the Iowa Skilled Workforce Act, which passed unanimously. This bill intends to have a strategic partnership between the state, our schools, and trades. The bill provides funding and flexibility, and Iowa’s industry leaders will shape and train the next generation of workers. The bill increases the 84E Apprenticeship Act funding from $3 million to $4.5 million. This funding provides annual financial assistance to existing Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs across the state.

The bill also creates the Career Training Physical Expansion Program and appropriates $9.5 million to this fund. This fund will help community colleges build new, state-of-the-art facilities, and will also help with both union and non-union private sector programs. SF 2168 also gives flexibility to schools and programs by removing red tape for teachers, allowing veteran tradespeople the opportunity to lead classrooms. It empowers community colleges to set the financial aid parameters for the Last-Dollar Scholar program so they can adapt to specific needs of their local high-demand industries. It also encourages pre-apprenticeship programs in K-12 schools to show students a clear path to success before they even graduate.

Iowa House Republicans have been moving their budget bills through the Appropriations Committee and proposes a Fiscal Year 2027 total budget of $9.662 billion, a 1.6% increase over the current budget. The senate proposes a $9.623 billion budget currently, and Governor Reynolds proposed a $9.666 billion budget earlier this year. As of April 16th, the senate has not released their individual budget proposals.

The Iowa House released House File 2745 and it’s a compromise for property tax reform. Some of the highlights are:

1. It caps revenue growth at 2%, excluding new construction and debt levies for schools.

2. It converts the homestead credit to an exemption and triples it to $15,000. Funds from the previous homestead credit would be used to buy down the $5.40 levy.

3. Eliminate the backfill of the business property tax exemption and transfer the approximate $125 million to the Taxpayer Relief Fund.

4. Gradually increases the share of SAVE money collected from the sales tax devoted to property tax relief from the current 7% to 25% by 2031.

5. Shifts the burden of proof on the assessor when valuation increases by 10% or more, so that the government is required to justify why your bill is going up.

6. Limits TIF districts to 20 years, which ensures this is for temporary development instead of becoming permanent on the tax base.

7. Creates a FirstHome Iowa program modeled after Iowa’s 529 accounts to help Iowans save for their first home.

Hope you had no storm damage and have a safe and healthy week!