By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

House Speaker Pat Grassley says House Republicans are planning to release their plan for changing Iowa’s residential property tax system this week.

“I think it’s very positive that we’re getting bills out early,” Grassley said during an appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.

Senate Republicans and Governor Kim Reynolds released their plans last week. Reynolds told Radio Iowa it’s way too early to predict what property tax changes might get majority support in the legislature. “It is just tough to do and that’s why it’s not been done,” Reynolds said, “but I do believe there is a genuine interest between the legislature and the governor’s office to get something done.”

The governor is proposing that property tax revenue grow no more than 2% each year, along with a property tax freeze for Iowans above the age of 64 who live in a home valued under $350,000.

Senate Republicans propose eliminating property taxes for Iowans above the age 60 who no longer have a mortgage and own their homes — along with increasing the state’s homestead tax credit to 50% of a home’s value for everyone else. It includes a 4% limit on residential property tax growth. Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh predicts lawmakers will find consensus on the property tax issue this year. “But if the goal is to really build in long-lasting property tax relief for Iowans, the Senate proposal’s going to be the one that’s going to lead the charge on it,” Klimesh said during a Radio Iowa interview.

Grassley indicated the House GOP’s approach will be easy for taxpayers to understand, but he’s not offering specifics on how it may be different from the other proposals. “Regardless of what the details are and what they all look like, I think they’re all trying to get to the same goal,” Grassley said, “which is certainty for the taxpayer.”

House Democrats released their ideas at the beginning of the month, including a 4% limit on annual property tax growth.

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s preliminary number shows the lowest number of traffic deaths since the state started keeping records 100 years ago.

DOT State Highway Safety Program Manager Larry Grant says a drop in motorcycle deaths is one of the factors. “Motorcycles were about half the fatalities than we normally have. And that kind of plays into what we were talking about, the number one crash, especially fatality, crash in the state of Iowa is a run off the road,” he says. Motorcycle deaths dropped from 64 to 38 in 2025.

Grant says running off the road has been a key factor in motorcycle deaths. “Motorcycles typically are the majority of them are going to be single vehicle. I know that’s a shock, but a lot of times people think it’s going to be multiple vehicles. It’s not, it’s a single vehicle run off the road,” he says.

Grant says driving while impaired by alcohol is another factor in motorcycle deaths, but he says age is a bigger concern. “The actual motorcycle deaths in Iowa are more in the older age group than the younger age group. The younger age group has more crashes, but the injuries and fatalities occurs mostly with the older,” he says.

Grant says the older age group is 54 to 65, and handling the speed of the motorcycle becomes an issue for them.  “You know, they had it when they’re young and now they still have it. They get those big bikes and they just come in and speed is really, really high. The speed comes into those curves or and they just can’t slow down enough and they go off,” he says. “Now the younger drivers typically are riding the sport bikes and they’re typically wearing helmets more than your older drivers with I’m going to call them touring bikes, whether it’s a Harley-Davidson or whatever it might be.”

Grant says All Terrain Vehicles and Utility Terrain Vehicle crashes have led to more deaths as laws changed regarding their use.  “Registrations for that through the DNR shows that went from 30,000 registered UTV’s to 70,000 last year. So that’s a huge increase on UTV’s, ATVs,” he says. UTV and ATV deaths dropped by half this year from 20 to 10.

Grant says one other statistic that stands out is the number of accidents where more than one person died. “Our our multiple fatality crashes were drastically down this year. We had about 12 of those crashes that resulted in 24 deaths, compared in the past we’ve had up to 88 deaths, with two years ago, 39 crashes, but 88 deaths,” he says.

Grant says the 2025 total now is 259, but they wait 30 days after the end of the year to make it a final count, to include someone who was injured in an accident and later died from those injuries.

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

A bill on the fast track in the Iowa House would ban the use of eminent domain to seize property along the proposed Summit Carbon pipeline route.

The bill cleared a House committee on a 19-2 vote Wednesday afternoon and is eligible of debate in the full House next week. Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison said House members have been trying for five years to find a way to protect property owners who don’t want the pipeline on their land. “This year the language is as simple as it can be,” Holt said. “No eminent domain for CO2 pipelines in Iowa.”

Representative Ross Wilburg, a Democrat from Ames backed the bill in committee, but he said there’s been no signal this approach will break through the statehouse impasse — or that the governor would sign it into law. “The conditions haven’t changed on this,” Wilburn said.

Holt says he, along with what appears to be a majority of House members, are ready to take a stand and pass the bill. “The House does not control the Senate and the governor, but what we do is do what is right and we move forward,” Holt said, “And who knows what dynamics might change based upon the actions that we take.”

The top Republican in the Senate is proposing an alternative that would let Summit rechart the path of its pipeline, to go around landowners who haven’t signed voluntary easements. Holt has said that’s a non-starter because Summit could still use eminent domain in some circumstances.