| Addressing Doctor Shortages
One of the big issues debated this week was House File 2254, which requires the Board of Regents to develop a policy prohibiting the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) from including noncompete clauses in any contract with a physician. The bill applies to all employment contracts between the UIHC and advanced registered nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, registered nurses, and physicians that were entered into, extended, or renewed on or after the effective date of the bill. This is a huge win for rural hospitals, our workforce and Iowans looking for care. It gives Iowans a greater ability to find work in our state, helping address workforce needs in this important area. We have done other legislation in the past to help address our health care workforce challenges, and this bill is one more way we can help improve it in our state.
Keeping Iowa Roads Safe
Senate File 2426 passed this week, which requires the Department of Transportation to examine the English proficiency of each person who applies for a CDL or commercial learner’s permit. This bill aligns with the federal executive order requiring drivers to be able to read road signs, converse with officials, and maintain logs in English, or risk being placed out-of-service. We have seen tragic news related to individuals not following the rules of the road, harming individuals, or worse. This bill helps keep Iowans safe on the roads.
Keeping Iowa Children Healthy
Iowa Senate Republicans continue to deliver for Iowans and were happy to pass the Iowa Make American Healthy Again Act in the Senate after the House had made several changes to the bill. The Iowa MAHA Act aims to refocus the state’s efforts to improve nutrition, physical activity, and healthy foods for all Iowans, but with an emphasis on children. Good habits start young and to improve our trends we need to educate and hold our systems accountable to achieve these goals. One of those efforts includes the removal of artificial food dyes for school lunch programs. Studies have shown these chemicals, which have zero health benefits, contribute to behavioral issues.
This bill also codifies a requirement that the SNAP program follows the healthy food guidelines approved by the USDA, ensuring taxpayer dollars are being used to buy healthy, nutritious foods that are improving the health of Iowans. This bill will greatly benefit the health of Iowans and make improvements in our state for a healthier lifestyle.
Keeping an Eye on Education
We also had some big wins related to education this week. We recently learned that Iowa’s high school graduation rate climbed to 88.8% in 2025, marking the highest rate in five years, according to new data from the Iowa Department of Education. The rate increased 0.5 percentage points from 88.3% for the class of 2024. About 35,116 students graduated in 2025, nearly 1,000 more than the previous year. This marks the first time since 2020 the rate has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the rate was at 88.3%. We have been working on a number of policies to help ensure students are being taught the essentials they need to be successful in school and after, and we are proud to see Iowa’s graduation rates improving.
We were thrilled to see the news this week that we can now enforce Senate File 496 which became law in 2023. That legislation ensures teachers are teaching age-appropriate content to students in kindergarten through the sixth grade and prohibits sexually explicit books in libraries and classrooms. The law had been tied up in the courts for nearly three years but now the court has ruled that “The First Amendment does not guarantee students the right to access books of their choosing at taxpayer expense.” We have always put the rights of parents first in the classroom, returning the focus to educational fundamentals and away from gender ideology, Critical Race Theory, and other educational fads. This ruling was a big win for Iowa parents.
Historic Property Tax Relief Overhaul Passes Iowa Senate
After months of work and discussions, this week the Iowa Senate passed a historic property tax overhaul to provide real relief to Iowans, reform Iowa’s broken property tax system, and restore Iowa’s infrastructure. Here are the primary features of Senate File 2472:
- Automatically lowers levies when property assessments rise
- Eliminates the complicated and unpredictable variable rollback system
- Implements a 2 percent property tax restriction on local taxing entities, but with flexibility to adjust for inflation
- Expands the tax levy rate controls to all rate limited levies, excluding pensions, health insurance, tort, etc.
- Allows the legislature to modify the local tax rate to help Iowa taxpayers in a bad economy
- Allows public notices to be posted online
- Allows the Local Option Sales Tax to be increased from 1 cent to 1.25 cents if local boards or councils take a new majority vote
- Ensures schools cannot maintain excessive cash reserves and responsibly buys down those cash reserves to a reasonable limit
- Includes a fuel tax index to guarantee additional funds to restore Iowa’s roads and bridges.
This represents a vision for a better property tax system that favors Iowa property taxpayers, and is simpler, fairer and more transparent. This is a proposal that we released on the very first day of session to show Iowans this was a big priority, and we were proud to bring this bill to a vote this week.
SF2472 eliminates the antiquated variable rollback system with a 50 percent discount on taxable value for every single Iowan who owns a home. It also increases that discount to 60% when Iowans turn 60 years old, 70% for those over 70, 80% for those over 80 and so on. To give Iowans even further relief, the bill automatically lowers levies when property inflation rises above 2 percent.
It was remarkable to see the bipartisan support for this proposal that passed out of the Senate this week on a 41-4 vote and fulfills our promise to Iowans for big and bold property tax reform. This is the biggest property tax overhaul Iowa has seen in decades. It works to create a system that is better for Iowa’s homeowners, offers more flexibility for local governments while controlling spending, and restores Iowa’s roads and bridges to help the economy grow. This bill now goes to the Iowa House. Please let your House Representative know how important it is that the House pass SF2472 with few, if any, changes. |
