Republican says he’ll additionally push to fill water high quality, recreation fund

The Iowa State Capitol constructing in Des Moines (The Gazette)

ALTOONA — Property taxes shall be beneath the microscope when state lawmakers return for his or her annual work subsequent month, a key legislator stated Friday.

The Republican majorities on the Iowa Capitol have lately handed a number of cuts to state revenue taxes. Dan Dawson, a state senator from Council Bluffs who chairs the Iowa Senate’s committee on tax coverage, stated property taxes are subsequent.

“The one matter we actually haven’t tackled as a Legislature for a couple of years … is property taxes,” Dawson stated throughout a legislative panel dialogue hosted by the Iowa Taxpayers Affiliation at its annual assembly at The Meadows Occasions & Convention Middle at Prairie Meadows.

“We’re going to be laser-focused on property taxes this upcoming session.”

Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs

Dawson stated his plan is for Senate Republicans to have a look at the native property tax levy system and property tax exemptions.

Whereas state authorities is funded by gross sales and revenue taxes, metropolis and county governments and college districts are primarily funded by native property taxes.

“There’s acquired to be a basic change in philosophy of how budgets are constructed on the native degree,” Dawson stated.

Pam Jochum, a state senator from Dubuque and the highest Democrat on the Senate’s tax coverage committee, stated she is open to addressing property taxes, however cautioned that lawmakers have beforehand tried the identical and, in her phrases, “It’s not a simple factor to do.”

“To me, the rubber meets the highway on the native degree. … We go away it as much as them to determine the right way to make all of it work,” Jochum stated. “If we’re going to make that change, I hope we use a scalpel and never an ax. As a result of I do know proper now, native governments are approach too depending on one tax, and that’s property tax.”

Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque

Dawson additionally pledged to resume his effort to revamp Iowa’s gross sales tax system so as to inventory a state fund for water high quality, outside and recreation tasks that has gone unfilled since voters accepted its creation in 2010.

Final yr, Dawson proposed ending all local-option gross sales taxes, including to the state gross sales tax, and utilizing a portion of that new state gross sales tax income for the water high quality and outside belief fund.

Dawson appeared to rule out merely elevating the state gross sales tax by three-eights of a cent, as prescribed within the belief fund’s creation.

“However perhaps there’s one other method to go about it,” Dawson stated. “This is usually a marriage of fine tax coverage in addition to high quality of life points.”

The 2023 session of the Iowa Legislature begins Jan. 9.

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