Property taxes can’t keep growing faster than Iowans ability to pay

Every fall, the same quiet worry shows up in kitchens and living rooms across Iowa. A retired couple opens their property tax statement and does the math in their heads. A young family, trying to raise kids in the home they saved for, sees another large increase and wonders how many more increases they can afford. These moments are detailed to me dozens of times a year, and they are growing harder to hear.

The data is impossible to dismiss — over the last twenty years, property taxes in Iowa have more than doubled. In many counties over just the past 10 years, the jump has been 50, 60, even 70% or more. For retirees on fixed incomes and working families whose wages haven’t kept up, those increases aren’t statistics — they’re the difference between home ownership or being forced to downsize or rent.

We all know costs have risen since 2020 — no one has been able to avoid it. But when these costs are consistently passed onto the taxpayer, and property tax bills grow faster than the paychecks and Social Security benefits that Iowans use to pay them, too many families are left making impossible choices: living in their own home or living within their budget.

This legislative session, my top priority is straightforward: work with my colleagues to find responsible, lasting ways to bring relief to homeowners so their property tax bills no longer increase faster than their ability to pay. We can protect the dream of homeownership and still support the services our communities depend on when we all learn to live within our means.

America has always stood for the idea that if you work hard, you should be able to own a home — without fear of being taxed out of it. That promise is slipping away for too many Iowans and it’s time we brought it back within reach.

By Rep. Taylor Collins

Rep. Taylor Collins resides in Mediapolis and represents Iowa House District 95, which includes all of Louisa County, and large parts of Des Moines, Henry, and Muscatine Counties. Collins is serving his second term in the Iowa House.