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Senators lay out competing priorities: property-tax overhaul, landowner protections and proposed CO2 severance tax
Summary
Floor speeches on opening day highlighted major priorities for 2026: a proposed overhaul of property taxes to give relief to homeowners, proposals to protect landowners around carbon-capture pipelines and a suggested severance tax on CO2 to fund state priorities.
Lawmakers used opening-day remarks to preview major policy items expected during the 2026 session, focusing on affordability, property taxes, pipeline rules and energy policy.
Senator Weiner (senator from Johnson) delivered a floor address that emphasized affordability and economic concerns, saying Iowa faces serious fiscal and health-care challenges and citing a stated $1,260,000,000 deficit this year. He called for investments in childcare, education and workforce retention and urged the chamber to address rising housing and health-care costs.
A senator identified in the transcript as the senator from Wenatchee (the senator speaking from SEG 382 onward) outlined the majority’s proposals. That senator said Republicans will release a property-tax reform proposal that, according to the floor remarks, "eliminates property taxes for Iowans who own their family home" once implemented; the remarks described the reform as stripping the old system "down to its chassis and rebuild[ing] it." The same senator previewed proposals intended to expand notice corridors and enhance communication between landowners and project owners for pipeline projects, and said the majority will propose a severance tax on carbon dioxide flowing through pipelines as a revenue source.
Floor remarks framed the pipeline items as attempts to protect farmers and landowners from eminent domain and to increase transparency at Iowa Utilities Commission meetings, and cited other states’ projects as proof of concept for avoiding eminent-domain use. Lawmakers described the proposed CO2 severance tax as a means to accelerate a longer-term goal of reducing or eliminating state income taxes.
Those were policy previews rather than filed bills on the floor; senators moved on to procedural business during the same session. The majority said it will release bill text and formal proposals in coming days, and senators from multiple sides emphasized the need to balance landowner protections with infrastructure and energy development.
