The Iowa Legislature is looking to finish out the current session, with one main component left to be finalized, and that’s the state budget for next fiscal year.

House District 47 Representative Phil Thompson tells Raccoon Valley Radio tax reform is the main issue concerning the budget.

“We’re talking about removing those triggers on the 2018 tax reform that happened. I think that’s kind of a joint goal between the House and Senate. We’re also looking at different inheritance tax relief packages between 3, 5 and 10 year drop off on those. We’re also talking about shifting mental health levy from local property taxes over to state coffers to, or at least a portion of that.”  

Thompson points out the chain reaction that can happen when lawmakers negotiate tax relief.

“So anytime that we do tax relief obviously that reduces the revenues, the big revenue numbers that we can project over ten years time. So we really want to comb through that and make sure that we’re working with good numbers and conservative assumptions so that we can responsibly budget.”

Thompson adds, the House Republicans want to keep to their budgeting goals of providing tax relief to keep more money in Iowan’s pockets while also adequately funding the state’s priorities.