Legislative Session is Around the Corner |
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The 2025 Legislative Session starts on January 13. This 110-day per diem session is the first session of the 91st General Assembly.
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Contact your legislators and build a working relationship with them before session begins. Familiarity and working relationships are harder to build in the middle of session when tensions can be high.
- The new General Assembly means we have new Chairpersons. See a complete listing of House Republican Committee Chairs and Assignments and Senate Republican Committee Chairpersons. Democrat committee assignments have yet to be announced.
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Meet the League’s new Government Affairs team!
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Local Leaders Day 2025 |
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Save the Date for Local Leaders Day on
March 4! Connect with legislators, hear from key speakers, and share your experience on the impacts of recent legislative changes. |
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Revenue Estimating Conference Releases New Figures |
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Iowa’s Revenue Estimating Conference, composed of Kraig Paulsen, Jennifer Acton, and Jeff Plagge met on December 12 to release State Revenue projections.
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These projections will be used by the Governor and the Legislature to craft budget proposals in 2025. The actual figures will be released in January and March respectively.
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Largely due to tax cuts, the State’s future revenues are expected to decrease by nearly $428 million from FY25 to FY26. The panel projects the state will bring in roughly $8.7 billion in revenue in FY26, which is more than $100 million less than the State’s appropriations for FY24 which sit at $8.91 billion.
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The bottom line? When Iowa lawmakers return to the capitol next month, they will have fewer dollars to allocate than in the previous legislative session. So, new appropriation requests, or a backfill to local governments, from the legislature are unlikely to be fulfilled in 2025.
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City Cost Drivers Are on the Rise |
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As we enter the city budget season, it’s important to communicate this process and your city's financial condition with your state legislators, as the legislature will most likely consider changes to the property tax system in 2025.
Contact your legislators before the session begins to start a dialogue about your city budgeting process and the effects you are experiencing due to recent property tax legislative changes.
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Designate Your Legislative Champion |
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If your city has not yet signed up a Legislative Champion for this upcoming session, do so today! The Government Affairs team will be matching Champions to their state elected officials to prepare for in-session alerts and potential calls to action. Please help us elevate your voices! |
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Grant Program for Environmental Projects |
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Local governments with a population of less than 50,000 are eligible to apply for EPA funding to support the planning, assessment, and development of community-based projects. Projects should directly benefit and empower communities to address local priorities. If you are seeking technical assistance for your application, please also consider reaching out to the Heartland Environmental Justice Center. |
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You can view all editions of Legislative Link at iowaleague.org/resource/legislative-link.
Like our membership, the Iowa League of Cities is a non-partisan, service-oriented organization that does not participate in elections, make campaign contributions, or have a political action committee (PAC). |
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