Des Moines, Iowa — House Speaker Pat Grassley says House Republicans aren’t philosophically opposed to getting rid of a property tax levy that funds mental health services, they just have unanswered technical questions about how the state would manage the system once it’s solely financed with state tax dollars.
There was no debate on the House or Senate floor this past week as G-O-P leaders and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds have been negotiating in private.
Grassley is not offering a timeline for when this dispute might be ironed out among Republicans in the House and Senate, but he says having the state take over financial responsibility for the mental health system is not as simple as eliminating a property tax levy.
Grassley says Governor Reynolds caught the attention of House Republicans with some of the details she outlined, but he says that was just a first step to finding a final agreement between Republicans in the House and Senate.