Editor’s note: This is part one of two on the legislative forum held Monday. Part two will appear in next week’s paper.
Discussion about proposed property tax bills took up nearly half of the hour-long legislative forum held Monday at Revelton Distillery, as state legislators talked with constituents. In attendance were Sen. Amy Sinclair (R-Allerton), Rep. Sam Wengryn (R-Pleasanton) and Rep. Ray “Bubba” Sorensen (R-Greenfield). Sinclair represents Iowa Senate District 12, which includes all of Clarke County and currently serves as the Senate President. Wengryn represents Iowa House District 24 which covers most of Clarke County, except for Murray and a western slice of the county that are represented by Sorensen in Iowa House District 23.
Bills in progress
Prior to taking questions and comments from the assembled crowd, Sinclair discussed bills that she and the Senate have been working on. As Monday marked the beginning of Week 8 of the legislative season and the first of two funnel weeks, bills that do not make it through committee by the end of this week are generally done for the year.
One issue that Sinclair continues to work on is that of reforming the forest reserve programs. Under the forest reserve program, Iowa landowners can place acres of their land into forest reserve (if certain criteria is met) and those acres are not taxed. Its original purpose was for conservation measures and to reduce tax burdens on those landowners who were not making any profit off of the land. Today, there are a large number of acres across the state that are not being taxed, and that tax burden falls on everyone else, yet those landowners enjoy the same benefits of what taxes pay for in the county.
“How can we get our arms wrapped around the forest reserve program so that it’s a more equitable sharing of the cost of doing business in the county, those essential services,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair noted there are several proposals for bills related to the program, and hers would tie one’s eligibility for the forest reserve credit to one’s eligibility for the homestead credit, thereby making it to where a taxpayer has to own a home in order to participate. That would help cut down on some of the out-of-state landowners who benefit from the program.
She spoke of a bill that would clear up an election law change that affected the dissolution of Orient-Macksburg School District, which residents in that school district voted on Tuesday. Another bill being looked at addresses hospitals that offer daycares for employees, and whether that falls under an ancillary service or not under the Iowa code, as it relates to receiving federal funding or grants to build daycare center.
Property taxes
Sinclair’s final talking point before the trio took questions was on property taxes.
She said while the three there today have not yet seen any bills on property taxes, there are people on the Ways and Means Committee - specifically Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton) in the Iowa House and Dan Dawson (R-Council Bluffs) in the Iowa Senate - working with the Iowa Department of Revenue to find a good solution for working with a property tax system that seems “broken.” Bills in Ways and Means are not subject to funnel weeks, so they are not worked on with the same urgency as bills in other committees.
When asked if the tax bill was going to look at mainly residential taxes or include commercial and industrial, Sinclair said she didn’t know for certain but guessed that it would impact all property taxes. A comment was made that the assumed intent would be to lower property taxes. Sorensen said while the goal would be to lower property taxes, it would also be to shed light on how the taxes are decided, and allow people to better understand where their tax dollars are going. Sinclair added that the bill would likely also address and correct unforeseen circumstances of the last property tax bill that was passed by legislation.
“The ultimate goal of slowing growth, lowering where necessary, transparency and correction I think will all be included in that,” Sinclair said, reiterating that she has not seen a bill. She said it wouldn’t surprise her if the forest reserve program was rolled into a broader bill.
Discussing how tax amounts seem to differ from year to year for taxpayers across all categories yet the total tax an entity receives stays relatively the same, Sinclair said what she tells local officials is to tell her where the issue is in the state.
“Tell me what the state is making you do that costs you money that you think is silly or unnecessary or redundant. Let us know, we will do what we can to get that out of code, too,” Sinclair said.
An issue that was raised with lowering of taxes is that it starts to cut into services that are expected by the public in their communities, from essential services to leisure activities.
“Once we get to the point where we cut down to nothing, or little to nothing…our local officials that have boots on ground have to explain why we can or cannot offer what [the public] deems as essential,” said Rob Taylor, owner of Revelton Distillery and former state representative.
Sorensen used the following analogy when it comes to making tax changes at the state level, stating,
“We do surgery with a sledgehammer at the state level and locally they can use a scalpel.”
An elected official from Winterset was in attendance, and said that police officers cost the most for a city, followed by fire department and equipment, citing the recent purchase of a one-million dollar fire truck. He said by the time those two departments costs are taken into consideration, it eats into a city’s budget, yet everyone wants their first responders to have the right equipment to be able to do their jobs. Sinclair noted this comes into the conversation when talking about statewide rollbacks, as property taxes look different in a town of 5,000 versus a town of 500,000.
Property taxes in relation to the assessed valuation of residential properties was brought into the conversation, referencing the housing market boom during COVID when interest rates were low. However, as assessed values match market values, the initial savings in interest are often rendered moot as assessed values look at market value. This creates unpredictability in property taxes, with some receiving substantial increases from one month to the next.
“It’s a math problem,” Sinclair said. “We want assessed valuations tied to something objective…the market is the most objective factor.”
She said that this comes down to the local levies needing to be adjusted accordingly, which cannot be accomplished at the state level without “taking the sledgehammer to it.” By adjusting local levies to where they are not capturing growth and keeping things more predictable, that math problem stays predictable.
“Nobody cares that the levy stayed the same, they care that they’re paying $200 more a month in taxes. They don’t care that you didn’t raise their levy, they care that they are now paying $200 a month more, because the market dictated it,” Sinclair said. “I don’t want an assessor having the authority to willy-nilly give assessed values to homes, I want a market to do that…it all comes down to the levies that are set by the local electeds if we’re to keep the overall taxes the people pay in check.”
More to come
See next week’s paper for part 2 of the forum, for discussions on Senate File 418 which deals with gender identity in the state, water and more.
While no future Osceola meeting dates have been announced - generally legislators only hold forums or town halls during the legislative season - Sinclair has released other dates that she will meet with constituents:
Farm Bureau Financial Service, Corydon, 8:30 a.m., Monday, March 10
Pin Oak Marsh, Chariton, 10 a.m., Monday, March 10
The Dug Out Café, Orient, 10 a.m., Friday, April 4