This photo shows a view of the Iowa Capitol Building on Tuesday, January 7, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo / Charlie Neibergall)
Charlie Neibergall
By Rod Boshart, Special for the Globe Gazette
DES MOINES – Iowa Senate Republicans plan to begin work Monday on a comprehensive compromise that has been worked out with Governor Kim Reynolds, which they call the “road to adjournment” for the 2021 overtime meeting.
Senator Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said the components of a compromise the governor introduced on Wednesday have now been included in a 26-department Senate study draft abolishing the state Income tax for 2018 included “triggers”, compressing brackets, and reducing rates; let the state take over mental health funding from property taxpayers while “replenishment aid” to local governments is phased out; Expiry of the state inheritance tax; Tax Exemption for COVID-19 Aid; and incorporating various topics related to housing, energy infrastructure, childcare tax credits, parity of telehealth and other topics in a 103-page document with a 31-page explanation.
Dawson is expected to chair a subcommittee on Monday to begin work on Senate Studies Act 1276, a move Sen. Pam Jochum, subcommittee member, D-Dubuque, said, “Has everything but the sink in”.
Senate Republicans have been pushing for changes to tax law throughout the session, starting with a call to accelerate the implementation of state income tax cuts that began three years ago by removing the economic conditions that needed to be met in order to reduce a responsible tax and sustainable system trigger way. They have also pushed for $ 100 million in real estate tax relief as the state gradually pays the cost of providing mental health services to the regionalized system in Iowa, ending the state tax paid on inheritance, and 2013’s commitment to “top-up” local property tax reverses lost revenue due to commercial / industrial price cuts and increasing the government’s share of the K-12 formula for school foundation grants from 87.5 percent to 88.4 percent on July 1.