Des Moines, Iowa (RI) — Governor Kim Reynolds is proposing a property tax plan and new spending on cancer prevention, detection and treatment.
Reynolds outlined these and other initiatives in the annual “Condition of the State” message Iowa governors deliver to legislators.
Reynolds is calling for a 2% cap on property tax revenue growth for city and county budgets.
The governor’s proposing a property tax freeze for Iowans above the age of 64 if their home’s value is less than $350,000.
Reynolds is proposing tax-deductible accounts for Iowans saving for their first home, along with an expansion of Iowa’s beginning farmer tax credits.
The state just received federal funding for rural health care initiatives and Reynolds is promising to dedicate $50 million of it to expand cancer screening tests and treatment of cancer.
Reynolds began her speech by honoring Staff Sergeants Nate Howard of Marshalltown and Edgar Torres-Tovar of Des Moines, the two Iowa National Guard soldiers who were killed a month ago in Syria.
Staff Sergeant Howard’s family was seated in the House gallery for the speech and they wiped tears from their eyes as the ovation lasted for well over a minute. The governor then revealed the two Iowa National Guard soldiers who were seriously wounded in that attack in Syria have been released from the hospital and are in outpatient treatment.
Reynolds says only 29% of the nearly 180,000 veterans who live in Iowa are receiving the federal benefits they’re owed, and only six other states have a lower grade.
She’s proposing that the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs take over the training of all 99 county Veterans Service Officers and that the state no longer provide $10,000 to each county to pay these employees. That money would be pooled into a competitive grant program to reward counties based on how many veterans, per capita, have secured the benefits they earned. The state would also set up a computerized claims system that would be used for all 99 counties.
Reynolds, who has been Iowa’s governor since mid-2017, is not seeking reelection.
Reynolds has forwarded her state spending recommendations to legislators, an overall budget that’s slightly less than two percent bigger than this past year. It includes a 2.5% per pupil spending increase for Iowa’s K-12 public and private schools, along with a recommendation that state spending for community colleges and the three public universities increase 1.5%.
KIWA Staff Photo
