“We Need to Put the Taxpayer In Control”

Iowans For Tax Relief and the National Federation of Independent Business hosted a standing-room-only taxpayer roundtable in Adel on Tuesday, gathering an audience of Central Iowa residents alongside legislators who share a growing concern: property taxes are pushing families and small businesses to the breaking point.

Held at a multi-generation family business, the conversation echoed the same message heard in communities across the state: property taxes are too high, the system is too complicated, and local spending continues to grow faster than taxpayers can keep up.

The meeting kicked off with Representative David Young noting that Iowa has taken modest steps in recent years, but much more work remains.  “We need to tackle this. We’ve been on the edges, but we need a broader solution, and we need to put the taxpayer in control.”  Young emphasized the need for discipline in local budgets.  “There are needs and then there are wants,” he said. “And we are seeing a lot of wants.”  That theme—too much spending and too little accountability—was echoed repeatedly throughout the discussion.

Representative Bill Gustoff told the crowd that property taxes are the number one issue he hears about at the door. “It’s the number one issue they bring up. It’s complicated, too complicated. I’m interested in things that put in controls and rein in abuses. I’m in favor of things that raise transparency.”  Gustoff also urged a return to limited government, “We have to get back to government only doing the essential things. They need to quit crowding out the private sector on all of the other things.”

Freshman legislator, and former County Supervisor, Chad Behn laid out both the challenge and the opportunity facing lawmakers.  He noted that while the state can technically provide backfill relief, “they’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.”  The root issue, he emphasized, is spending at the local level combined with a lack of transparency about who is actually raising taxes.  “A lot of authorities hide behind assessments and say, ‘We didn’t raise your taxes.’ But you paid more this year than last. My number one goal would be transparency…figure out who is raising taxes and not allow them to blame the assessor.”

Behn warned that high property taxes are having serious effects, “People are getting taxed out of their homes. Even local businesspeople have eyes that glaze over on the details.  They just know their property taxes are too high.”

Audience members shared frustration with school spending, commercial property burdens, and the lack of clear priorities in local budgets. Their comments struck common themes:

• Local governments will “keep spending as long as they’re given money to spend.”
• School districts with flat enrollment “keep building new gyms, new football fields, new auditoriums,” even as academic results lag behind.
• Commercial property owners described property taxes as “a killer,” saying they would have been financially better off investing in a retirement account than reinvesting in their own businesses.
• Construction professionals argued that the cost of new school buildings has become “beyond nuts,” and that incentives create unfair disparities between long-time taxpayers and newcomers receiving tax breaks.

One participant succinctly summarized the sentiment in the room: “We can talk about how to pay for something, but we also need to talk about what we’re paying for.”

The Adel roundtable, just as others before it, made clear that taxpayers are demanding meaningful, structural property tax reform.  The reform has to go beyond adjustments to levy rates or formulas and instead bring real discipline to local spending.  The message from residents remains consistent: transparency must improve, spending must be restrained, and the system must finally put taxpayers, not government, at the center.