(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says as she meets with local government leaders, business owners and legislators, she’s keeping an open mind about their ideas for reducing property taxes. Reynolds say local law enforcement, streets, schools and other services are largely financed with property taxes, so completely eliminating property taxes is not something that can happen overnight.

“I think it is the expectation of Iowans that we get something done to address the property taxes,” Reynolds said, “at least, to bend the curve and start to look at flatlining and taking them, eventually, down just a little bit.” Reynolds says finding ways to deliver services differently is a priority. Local governments in Iowa have already struck more than 24-thousand agreements to split the costs and share services and Reynolds says she wants to explore how to build on some of those.

Reynolds made her comments after a meeting with local officials in Dallas Center and two members of the Iowa House were there. Representative Carter Nordman is chair of the House committee that will draft tax plans in 2026. “We talk so much about the government entities, the ones who are collecting the taxes, but we don’t talk enough about the people who are paying them,” Nordman said. “…We’ve got to talk about the taxpayer and make sure they are the ones in the driver’s seat during these conversations.”

Representative David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, is chairman of the House Commerce Committee. He expects the House to consider ways to reduce residential property taxes AND the property taxes businesses pay. “We understand it’s going to be meaningful and bold — and it’s going to be hard as well, but we don’t want to come back and revisit this every year,” Young said. “We want reliability and certainty for local governments as well as the taxpayers who work hard and are paying the property taxes.”

The 2026 Iowa Legislative session starts in January 12th — that’s 87 days away.