Headed to Overtime in the Iowa Senate
Drey for Iowa
Well, that’s not all, folks. Our projected end date of Tuesday, April 21, has come and gone, so, once again, the Iowa State Legislature is heading into overtime.
Republican lawmakers in the Senate and House have not come to an agreement on the large issues left in front of us, so we’ll be here at the Capitol a while longer. Here’s where things stand.
Property Taxes
As you know, the Senate passed SF 2472 back on April 8 with bipartisan support. We knew at the time that the bill was not a finished product. It differed in some significant ways from the bill the House was running that combined elements of the House Republican proposal and the governor’s proposal.
This week, the House took up SF 2472 for debate. House Republicans attached a strike-all amendment that replaces the text of the Senate bill with their own property tax language. More of a “my way or the highway” approach than a true negotiation. That bill, as amended, will now bounce back to the Senate. It is very unlikely that Senate Republicans will just accept the amended version from the House, so I expect the bill to undergo further amendments and changes.
Eventually, the majority parties in each chamber will have to begin real negotiations and find a way forward, or this effort will stall and fail altogether.
The Budget
Most of the individual budget bills have run through the committee process on both sides of the rotunda. However, these bills are essentially just shells – the numbers aren’t real yet. We know that Republicans in the House and Senate are $39 million apart with their budget targets.
The key point to remember with the budget, regardless of the ideas they settle on, is that Senate Republicans, House Republicans, and the governor are all proposing to run another billion-dollar budget deficit for FY27. That will be back-to-back years of the state spending over a billion dollars more than it took in and using one-time reserve funds to cover the hole. They have set us on an irresponsible and reckless path that leads to a fiscal cliff, approaching more rapidly every legislative session.
Eminent Domain
There has been no movement. There was a flurry of activity at the beginning of this legislative session, but Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate drew their lines in the sand and have not budged an inch since.
