As Iowa lawmakers get ready to reconvene Jan. 13 for the 2025 session with new members, leaders said they are heading into the session with expectations to take on property taxes, changes to the state’s higher education system and immigration policy, among other issues.

Following the 2024 general election, the 91st Iowa General Assembly will bring some new lawmakers to the State Capitol – including adding more Republican members both chambers. Senate Republicans grew by two seats to a 35-15 supermajority in the Senate – with one seat now open as former Sen. Chris Cournoyer took the office of lieutenant governor. House Republicans expanded their majority to a 67-33 supermajority in the House.

House Speaker Pat Grassley said in an interview with Iowa Capital Dispatch that although there are more members in the House Republican caucus, much of their approach to legislating will be the same.

“All incumbents that ran for reelection were reelected, and then with the new members coming in, they seem to really kind of fit in the vision and that we’ve kind of had for this caucus and the issues that we’ve looked at,” Grassley said. “A perfect example is, we kind of figured the property tax would be a big issue coming into this session. That was (the) number one issue that we had in our feedback from our survey of the caucus members on ‘What did they feel was the priority that they heard on the campaign trail?’ And so, I think that shows that kind of everybody’s got a similar vision.”

Having GOP supermajorities in both chambers – in addition to Republicans holding all but one statewide elected office – means Democrats have little control over what legislation and topics are brought up in the upcoming session. However, Democratic leaders said there are still areas for collaboration with the majority party.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said House Democrats are still focused on their “people over politics” agenda and plan to introduce legislation on issues like supporting public education, reproductive health care, legalizing marijuana, and lowering the costs with housing and child care.

In previous sessions, House Democrats have worked with their Republican colleagues on measures like the 2023 property tax law that passed with bipartisan support, Konfrst said. This year, she said issues like housing and child care support could be issues where members can work together to find bipartisan solutions.

“If Republicans have housing solutions, if they have child care solutions that are really going to fix problems, then we’d want to be all part of it,” Konfrst said. “… We see that there are issues that are facing the state that are critically important, and we think we need to work together on them. We’re ready to go. We’re ready to work together.”

Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said in addition to efforts to work with Republican supermajorities, Democrats also play an important role in the Legislature in making sure the majority party takes “accountability” for measures passed.

“It is going to be our job this session as the minority party to hold our Republican colleagues accountable, not just for what they’re doing this session or whatever they’re going to do this session, but for the actions they’ve taken and the laws they passed for the past eight years that they’ve been in power,” Weiner said. “… That’s part of good governance. I’d love to see more actual government oversight. The Government Oversight Committees haven’t met in the last two years, so we’re going to fulfill that role ourselves.”

Weiner said Democrats will look at the impact of GOP-passed measures like the changes to the state’s individual income tax and the cost of the state’s Education Savings Account program that will go into full implementation without income caps beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.

With the Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference estimating earlier in December that the state will see a drop of roughly $600 million in annual state revenues this fiscal year compared to the previous year, Democrats said there is a need to review laws to ensure the state’s future fiscal health.

Konfrst said that the REC estimates show a need for the state to take a new approach to budgeting – and that the estimates show current budgeting practices are “unsustainable.”

“When we say unsustainable, we’re just beginning to see what that means,” Konfrst said. “And this year, this budget is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sustainability and lack thereof in our state budget. So Republicans have to do things much more responsibly here. And again, that comes from spending priorities, like public money for private schools, that are irresponsible and causing the problem.”

But Grassley said the declines in revenue were expected and measures like the 2024 income tax law built in provisions that allow the state to use the existing budget surplus and funds in the Taxpayer Relief Fund to make up for loss of revenue.

“As we were reducing the tax burden on Iowans, we were fully aware that there was going to be a time in which our revenue declined,” Grassley said. “I mean, it’s very hard to do a tax cut without declining revenue, especially coming after the four last four years we’ve had Biden, with the inflation in the economy. And so … we set mechanisms in place that, as we’re reducing these taxes, while we’re making these income tax cuts, that some of those mechanisms would be taking money out of that.”

Grassley said Republicans feel good about the “long-term viability” of these tax changes in coming years.

While budgeting typically comes near the end of the legislative session, there will be numerous policies proposed, discussed and passed at the State Capitol starting in January. Here’s a rundown of some of the measures expected to come up:

Property taxes

Republican leaders from both chambers said their major focus in the 2025 legislative session would be further action on property taxes – but that discussions are ongoing for what those changes will entail.

Any legislation coming in 2025 is expected to build on the 2023 law that set new rules for local governments implementing property tax changes, such as consolidating levies and setting caps on levy rates for cities and counties. House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl said at a Greater Des Moines Partnership event earlier in December that future legislation will likely include a review of some of the changes made to Iowa’s property tax system in 2023 — such as altering the system set up that put localities into three tiers based on revenue growth with different requirements on how much excess revenue would be required to be put toward lowering property taxes.

However, lowering the cost of property taxes overall is expected to be the main focus of lawmakers as they craft property tax legislation. Sen. Mike Bousselot, R-Ankeny, told reporters action is necessary as property taxes have increased by an average 7% for counties and 6% for cities across the state.

“That’s money out of property taxpayers’ pockets, it’s money out of Iowans’ pockets,” Bousselot said. “It’s making it more expensive to live in Iowa. We have to address that this session.”

As House Republicans hit the campaign trail in 2024, Grassley said property taxes was one of the top issues consistently brought up by constituents — and that lawmakers were motivated to take action.

“It was the number one issue (brought up) by almost double, compared to any other issue in caucus,” he said.

Democrats and local government officials have expressed concerns about what a GOP property tax proposal will look like. In meetings and discussions on the 2023 law, local government advocates and officials expressed concerns about their ability to continue providing services and amenities due to the property tax cuts without access to alternative forms of revenue.

Grassley said that as lawmakers discuss property taxes, there also needs to be a conversation with local governments both on revenue and ways to budget more efficiently.

“We also need to have this conversation about, what is the expectation of level of services that Iowans have?” Grassley said. “Where is there duplication that maybe exists as local tax entities? Right now, we have a tax system where each individual tax jurisdiction taxes within their own silo, and then at the end of the day, all that money goes to the taxpayer, and then they each get their portion of that. We have no coordination at the local level when it comes to those taxing entities, on how much money they’re extracting from the taxpayer. … My point being is, it’s a very broad conversation, not just a specific ‘this one piece fixes the entirety of the system.’ Because if we’re serious about doing this, it has to be very broad in scope and bigger than just one piece of a policy.”

Konfrst said Democrats are interested in lowering property taxes in Iowa — but that these proposals have to ensure that property tax cuts don’t result in higher taxes in other areas.

“We want the actual cost at the end of the day to be lower for folks,” Konfrst said. “So we’ll be digging into the details there, but certainly we can support lowering property taxes. One way to make sure that you don’t have to raise property taxes is to fund public education well enough that you don’t have to rely on property taxes as much in those communities by underfunding public education. Last session, 144 schools had to go in the budget guarantee, which means they had to look at raising property taxes. That’s not how you lower property taxes. So this is a more nuanced conversation than just a slash and burn.”

Higher education

Iowa House Republicans announced in November that there will be a new committee in their chamber — the Higher Education Committee, a separate entity from the Education Committee that has in the past tackled issues related to the state’s higher education system.

The new committee will be focused on the state’s public and private universities, as well as community colleges and other post-secondary education. The original panel will remain focused on the state’s K-12 system.

Grassley said splitting up the two panels is a way to ensure that Iowa is “getting value for the taxpayers’ dollar” in both systems.

The higher education committee will also focus on ensuring that Iowa’s post-secondary education systems are working to help the state address issues like Iowa’s workforce shortage and needs in specific fields, Grassley said. This means having conversations and bringing proposals similar to measures discussed in previous sessions, like changes to the Iowa Tuition Grant to focus on students pursuing majors in related to “high-need” job areas.

He also said the committee will look at issues related to the cost of education and spending at Board of Regents institutions and other public higher education entities.

“The conversation right now is always about student debt and the cost of education, but we don’t ever go to that next layer is — why is the cost of education what it is. And so I think all of those things can tie into and be a part of an overall package. And what we’re going to look at, not just in the higher ed committee, but also then partnering with the education budget subcommittee, to be able to really look at more of a holistic approach in higher education.”

Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, who will lead the new committee, said in November that the committee will hold a “long overdue” review of Iowa’s higher education system and will make sure institutions are “mission-focused” in preparing the state’s workforce while operating efficiently.

Collins said in a news release on the committee that the state encourage universities forgo “political agendas” and return to “the pursuit of academic excellence.”

Collins brought up issues like administrative spending as an area where higher education system may need more oversight — a discussion that comes in the wake of University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University closing offices and eliminating positions related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices as a state law barred the state’s three public universities from launching, maintaining or funding DEI offices.

The universities, under a directive from the Board of Regents, reallocated more than $2 million from DEI offices and programs in 2024, though the law does not go into effect until July 2025.

Konfrst said Democrats are concerned that the new committee will not be used to improve the state’s higher education institutions, but further politically attack Iowa’s universities on issues like DEI. While GOP leaders said the committee will focus on improving Iowa’s higher education system, she said using colleges and universities as a political target could keep students from coming to Iowa for education, and discourage people from staying in the state after graduating.

“I just don’t see that this is going to be a productive use of time, and I think that it’s really going to damage (the) three great regents institutions in the state,” Konfrst said. “We have amazing community colleges. We have great private colleges. We want students from out of state to come here and learn here, and the harder we make that, the fewer will come, and that means the fewer will stay.”

Grassley said he expects discussions on DEI to continue in the upcoming session, and proposals like elimination of DEI at community colleges may also be brought up by the committee.

“It hasn’t been that long since we passed our DEI elimination on the campuses,” Grassley said. “… We can’t just pass something and then just say, ‘OK, move on to the next thing.’ We also need to see what happened from those changes that have been made. As well, I would expect there to be more of that conversation and make sure that, you know, that could even be a much broader conversation in higher education, not just with the regents institutions.”

Immigration policy

One of the top issues in Iowa in the final weeks before the Nov. 5 general election was potential noncitizen voting. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said in October that his office had identified 2,176 registered voters as potential noncitizens, and issued guidance to county auditors to challenge those individuals’ ballots.

Those identified as potential noncitizens were people who had reported to the Iowa Department of Transportation or another government entity that they were not U.S. citizens, who later went onto register to vote. While a majority of these individuals were likely naturalized citizens who had the legal right to vote, there were at least some people on the list who were not U.S. citizens and had registered to vote illegally.

Pate said his approach to having the ballots challenged was necessary because the federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would not share the citizenship status of the people identified by his office as potential noncitizens. In early December, Pate and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing USCIS of unlawfully withholding this information while calling for access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database so the state can ensure its voter rolls are clean.

Pate told reporters in December that he plans to introduce legislation in 2025 that clarifies that the Secretary of State’s office can contract with state and federal agencies, as well as with third party entities, to verify Iowa voters’ citizenship status.

Grassley said House Republicans are “willing to engage in that conversation,” though specifics on the policy has not been discussed. He also said he expects to see other conversations on immigration policy to arise in the 2025 legislative session.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law in April making illegal immigration a state crime — allowing Iowa law enforcement officers to charge people with an aggravated misdemeanor if they have been deported, denied admission or otherwise removed from the country, or if they currently have an order to leave. The law was challenged by the U.S. Department of Justice and is under an injunction.

Grassley said state action on immigration — traditionally a federal issue — was motivated by President Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House in recent years. While Grassley said he has “significantly more confidence in President-elect Trump’s administration to address the issue of immigration,” he also said he believes there are areas where the state can work with the federal government to address issues related to immigration.

“If there’s things that states should be looking at or can be doing, maybe some bills that we’ve considered in the past, like the one we had last year on the benefits and trafficking of illegal immigrants, I think we should continue to look at those things,” Grassley said. “Not because we don’t have faith in the federal government, but I think states … also have responsibilities within this conversation.”

Democrats, however, argued that immigration should be left to the federal government. Weiner encouraged Iowans to contact their U.S. senators and representatives to pass the bipartisan immigration package that failed to advance in Congress as a way to address problems with the country’s immigration system.

“It’s up to the federal government and Congress to control the border and pass workable immigration laws and enforce them,” Weiner said. “That’s a federal issue. Of course, we want secure borders, and it’s something that Congress has punted on for years for a variety of reasons.”

Cellphone use in schools

Though Reynolds plans to reveal more of her priorities at her Condition of the State address in January, she has shared one of her goals for the upcoming session: a statewide policy restricting cellphone use in Iowa K-12 schools.

The details of this proposal have not yet been released. But the governor said in November she is working with school districts that have implemented and discussed such policies at a school or district level while crafting the proposal.

Ankeny, Ames, Dallas Center-Grimes and Ottumwa school districts are among the Iowa communities that have implemented some level of school cellphone restriction. Districts vary on what a cellphone ban looks like — some have barred access to phones for the entire day, while others only ban their use in classrooms or allow students to use their phones during lunch periods.

Reynolds said in November that she does not want to override the work done by these schools to find the solution best for their communities.

“I want to make sure that I’m respecting the hard work that’s already gone into place by the school districts that have stepped up and implemented it, and really the process that they went through to do that,” the governor said. “… I want to supplement that and enhance that, I don’t want to really step on anything that they’ve done. So it’ll probably be more of a floor, is what we’re looking at, but just to encourage people to … move in that direction.”

In early December, the U.S. Education Department also called on schools and districts in every state to adopt policies on cellphone use, though the federal department also did not specify what specific policies should be adopted.

Medicaid work requirements

Senate Republicans plan to propose legislation that would require Iowans receiving Medicaid insurance coverage to be working, training for employment or applying to jobs to receive government-funded coverage, Bousselot said in December.

GOP lawmakers have discussed work requirements for health care coverage in the past. A 2020 bill proposed that Iowans who did not have disabilities would be required to work, volunteer or participate in work programs for an average of at least 20 hours a week to qualify for Medicaid, or would be required to participate and comply with the requirements of a workfare program. In addition to people with disabilities, Iowans under age 18 or over age 64, those medically certified as “physically or mentally unfit for employment,” parents and caretakers for children under 1 year old or a child with a disability or a serious medical condition, pregnant women, and people in drug addiction or alcohol treatment and rehabilitation programs would be exempt.

Specifics of who would be required to meet requirements — and what requirements would look like — have not been shared.

Multiple states applied or received permission to impose work requirements for at least some Medicaid recipients under Trump’s first administration, but these approvals were rescinded or denied by the Biden administration. With Trump set to return to the presidency, several states have indicated they plan to try to reinstate work rules, in addition to other states like Iowa that could seek approval for the first time.

Bousselot spoke about the proposal at a December event, telling reporters that he believes work requirements could help ensure that the state’s benefit programs do not encourage individuals to stay out of the workforce in order to keep their health care coverage.

“Health care in Iowa — it’s important that folks have it, but it shouldn’t be something that keeps people in poverty,” Bousselot said. “And so, getting people job training and having them seek a job while they’re receiving free health care from taxpayers, I think, is a common sense proposal that incentivizes getting back to work, incentivizes job training — and also make sure that the safety net exists, that they have health care while they’re down on their luck.”

Konfrst said work requirements for programs like Medicaid do not account for the reasons why people are forced to stay out of the workforce.

“We want to make sure that when we’re talking about able-bodied Iowans, we’re not forgetting the hundreds of thousands of people who are caring for loved ones at home right now, who are not able to work because they’re not getting resources for care,” Konfrst said. “… There are many people who need services in the state who can work, but have reasons they can’t. They are caring for an aging parent, caring for a disabled child. We need to make sure that we’re looking at this and actually looking what the problem is, not just playing politics, which is what I think Republicans are going to do.”