Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced she won’t be running for reelection on Friday. That means the governor's race won't have an incumbent on the ballot, leaving the spot open for other Republicans to throw their name in the ring. Former Rep. Brad Sherman had already announced he'd be running in the primary, and Attorney General Brenna Bird has indicated she might be interested in joining the race as well.
Meanwhile, under the golden dome of Iowa’s Capitol, lawmakers passed a series of bills, sending them to Reynolds’ desk for her signature. That includes the K-12 school funding package, which was finalized nearly two months after the deadline to decide education funding. Lawmakers also passed a bill to lower the minimum age to carry handguns to 18 and a bill to restrict cellphone use in schools. Other bills that were passed last week include a measure aimed at improving math scores and another proposal from Secretary of State Paul Pate that aims to strengthen checks of voters’ citizenship status.
With the end of the legislative session in sight, lawmakers are trying to hammer out their policy priorities for the year, including an overhaul of Iowa’s property tax legislation. Lawmakers made some key revisions to their earlier property tax overhaul framework. That includes measures to get rid of the state's "rollback" system next year, which determines what percentage of your property value is taxed. The new bill would also exempt $50,000 of a homeowner's property value from being taxed, doubling the exemption proposed earlier in the session.
The new framework keeps several components of the earlier proposals, including the 2% revenue growth limitation on local budgets, though the new version would allow local entities to increase revenue in times of high inflation. The new proposal would also shift more than $400 million of school funding off of property taxes and onto the state general fund.
