(Radio Iowa) – Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra says if he’s elected governor, he’ll make cutting Iowa property taxes a priority — and one step could be freezing property taxes for seniors. “But, on the flip side, you’ve got to have economic growth in those communities,” Feenstra says. “It all goes together.” And Feenstra says that means cutting property taxes for small businesses, too. “It’s the number one cost when it comes to small business. Before you even turn on the lights, you’re paying property taxes,” Feenstra says, “so we’ve got to figure out a solution to lower them, to make sure that they can grow and stay successful and keep their doors open.” Cutting the budgets for certain services, like police, fire and ambulance services isn’t the goal, according to Feenstra.

“There’s a new way to do this to be transparent on what property taxes look like,” Feenstra told reporters this morning, “what’s being paid.” Feenstra touts his work as a state senator in lowering Iowa’s income tax and his work in congress on federal tax cuts included in the “Big Beautiful Bill” President Trump signed in July. “I was a city administration. I understand how we can do this. I was also county treasurer, so I get how property taxes work,” Feenstra told reporters. “I know there’s ways to lower property taxes and freeze them and so that is my vision and we’ll get it done.” Feenstra was the city administrator in his hometown of Hull before serving two years as Sioux County Treasurer.

Feenstra made his comments early this (Friday) morning after an event in Des Moines organized by his campaign for governor. Feenstra, who’s been a member of the U-S House since 2021, told reporters he and other members of a House committee are working diligently to come up with an alternative to expiring tax credits for some of the Americans buying health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. “We want to come out with a new plan that dramatically lowers premiums for families and for small businesses when it comes to health insurance,” Feenstra says. Health care subsidies for Americans whose income is at 400 percent of the poverty line or below will continue under current law, but the COVID era extension of those subsidies for higher income Americans that was approved in 2021 will expire December 31st.

“We understand how important it is to families and to small businesses that we’ve got to get it done,” Feenstra says. “We’ve got to come up with a solution and that’s our goal.” Congressman Zach Nunn, a Republican who represents Iowa’s third district, supports a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, to give lawmakers time to come up with long-term solutions that lower health care costs.