A constitutional amendment on the ballot this election will allow Iowans to decide if they want to raise the threshold for lawmakers to pass income or corporate tax increases.
In Iowa, a constitutional amendment must pass the Iowa House and Senate under two consecutive general assemblies before appearing on the ballot. Lawmakers passed this amendment in 2024 and 2026.
What is the Amendment 1?
Amendment 1 asks voters if they want to raise the threshold lawmakers have to meet in order to raise individual income or corporate taxes, or create a new income tax. If passed, the Iowa Constitution would be amended to require approval from a two-thirds supermajority of lawmakers in both the Iowa House and Senate to pass income or corporate tax increases.
Currently, only a simple majority in each chamber is required to pass income or corporate tax increases.
This would raise the number of lawmakers needed to approve these changes from 51 representatives and 26 senators, to 67 representatives and 34 senators.
The amendment does not propose increasing or lowering income taxes.
What does Amendment 1 say?
Amendment 1 is on the back of the ballot, in the last section. It reads as follows:
Shall the following amendment to the constitution be adopted?
Summary: Provides that any bill to increase the individual income tax rate or the corporate income tax rate, or the rate of any other type of tax based upon income or legal and special reserves, shall require the affirmative votes of at least two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the legislature for passage. Further, the two-thirds majority vote requirement applies to the passage of a bill to establish a new tax on any type of income or legal and special reserves imposed by the state. The requirement excludes taxes imposed at the option of a local government. A lawsuit challenging the proper enactment of a bill under this section must be filed no later than one year following the enactment.
Full Text:
The Constitution of the State of Iowa is amended by adding the following new section to new Article XIII:
Passage of a bill that increases the individual income tax rate or the corporate income tax rate, or the rate of any other type of tax based upon income or legal and special reserves, shall require the affirmative votes of at least two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly. This requirement does not apply to taxes imposed at the option of a local government. Passage of a bill that establishes a new tax on any type of income or legal and special reserves imposed by the state shall require the affirmative votes of at least two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly. A lawsuit challenging the proper enactment of a bill under this section must be filed no later than one year following the enactment. If such a lawsuit is not filed within the one-year limit, the bill shall be considered properly enacted under this section. Each bill to which this section applies must include a separate provision describing the requirements for enactment prescribed by this section. The general assembly shall enact laws to implement this section.
What does voting 'yes' mean?
A “yes” vote is in favor of changing the Iowa Constitution to pass this higher voting threshold for state lawmakers. A “yes” vote supports requiring a two-thirds supermajority of lawmakers to pass personal income or corporate tax increases, rather than maintaining the current simple majority requirement.
What does voting 'no' mean?
A “no” vote opposes changing the Iowa Constitution and is in favor of keeping the simple majority requirement for passing personal income or corporate tax rate increases.
What do supporters and opponents say?
Iowans for Tax Relief launched an awareness campaign in July, urging voters to vote “yes” to the constitutional amendment.
The campaign claims the measure protects taxpayers from future income tax hikes. Iowa currently has a flat individual income tax rate of 3.8% following several rounds of tax cuts by Republican lawmakers in recent years. Iowa’s highest individual income tax rate peaked in 1975 and was lowered over the following decades.
“By enshrining some of this in the Constitution, you can provide that protection from what may happen from the political pendulum or whatever which way the political winds are blowing, and who might be leading that next year,” Iowans for Tax Relief President Chris Hagenow said.
The nonprofit Common Good Iowa is leading a coalition of organizations urging voters to reject the amendment. The organizations include the Iowa Hunger Coalition, the Iowa State Education Association, Iowa Farmers Union Education Foundation, the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO and several other organizations.
Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, claims raising the threshold to raise income taxes will make lawmakers more likely to resort to raising other taxes, like sales taxes, that aren’t subject to the supermajority requirement and disproportionately impact lower income Iowans.
Iowa’s state sales tax rate was last raised in 2008 and is currently 6%.
“Essentially, they are only protecting the two taxes that can be structured in a way that makes sure that the wealthiest folks in our state and the most profitable corporations pay what they owe,” Discher said.
The campaign also claims passing the amendment could lead to budget cuts in areas like education or healthcare by limiting the ways the state can raise revenue. Discher pointed to the state using reserve funds to help cover a more than $1 billion deficit, which GOP lawmakers said was planned.
Discher said the state budget will be under more pressure from reduced federal Medicaid funding and taking on more administrative costs for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“When we run out of the surplus dollars, hard decisions are going to be made,” she said. “We're concerned sales tax would be a piece of that, but it's actually kind of hard to imagine they're going to raise the sales tax to the degree it would have to be raised to fill that gap, which means, then, they're left with cutting.”
Hagenow called warnings of spending cuts “scare tactics" and disagreed that passing the amendment will lead to other tax increases. He believes the budget is sustainable if the Legislature continues to rein in spending.
“If we are concerned about what might fall on Iowans as far as their tax burden, then we should in fact make it harder to raise taxes,” he said. “I reject the notion that limiting raising one tax means we're going to raise another.”
What other states require a supermajority to raise income taxes?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states have supermajority requirements to raise income taxes as of April 2025 — including Arizona, California, Colorado, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
The progressive think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found states with and without supermajority requirements for raising taxes tend to have similar levels of taxation. However, Discher pointed out 10 of the 15 states with supermajority requirements for income taxes also have citizen initiative processes, which allows citizens to place proposed statutes or constitutional amendments on the ballot.
“We do not have that,” Discher said. “There's no escape hatch here for citizens to be able to go around a recalcitrant minority of lawmakers.”
Hagenow said the Iowans for Tax Relief campaign isn’t focused on debating the scope of government, but on connecting with voters who believe it should be harder to raise taxes.
“We're not trying to win a philosophical debate inside of this campaign,” Hagenow said. “We are trying to simply speak to Iowans that we think agree with the premise that it should be harder to raise taxes.”
Early absentee voting begins Oct. 14. Election Day is Nov. 3.
