Housing is supposed to be the foundation that helps families grow, not the force that pushes them out. But across Iowa — and especially here in District 71 — too many everyday working people are being priced out of their own communities. Corporate investors buy mobile home parks. Rents rise overnight. And property taxes keep climbing, year after year, with no relief for the very people who make this state run. Housing should spark stability and dignity. Instead, the system is stacking pressures on the families who can least afford it.

Spark the Truth: What the Numbers Show

Iowa families aren’t imagining the pressure — the numbers back it up. Iowa’s property tax burden is among the highest in the country. Local governments rely heavily on property taxes for revenue, and in 2022 alone, property taxes accounted for 3.25% of all personal income in Iowa, totaling $6.4 billion statewide (Murrey & Wieciorkowski, 2025). That cost gets passed directly to homeowners and renters — even when wages don’t keep up.

New proposals at the statehouse would reshape the entire property tax system. Republicans have introduced legislation expected to provide $426 million in property tax cuts over five years, funded partly by shifting school revenue obligations to the state (Barton, 2025). But local governments warn that a proposed 2% cap on annual levy growthwon’t keep up with inflation or the rising costs of public safety, fire, and EMS services, which often grow 4–7% per year (Barton, 2025). That means cities would face annual cuts, and services families rely on could suffer.

These pressures hit manufactured home residents hardest. Many low-income Iowans living in mobile home parks qualify for tax reduction programs only if their annual incomes stay below certain limits, such as $26,219 per year (Iowa Legal Aid, 2025). But those same residents are often the first targets when corporate owners raise lot rents or levy fees. For them, any increase in rent, in taxes, in utilities — pushes them closer to losing the one affordable home they have.

And even reforms meant to help can shift burdens. Eliminating Iowa’s longstanding rollback system — which has moderated taxable value spikes since 1977 — would mean that in some communities, residential taxpayers could see their share of the tax base jump dramatically. Pleasant Hill, for example, could rise from 56% to 71% residential burden within five years if the rollback disappears (Barton, 2025). When residential taxpayers carry more weight, working families pay more dollar for dollar.

The system is stretched, uneven, and unpredictable — and it hits the same people every time.

Spark Our Future: What This Means for District 71

District 71 — especially our North End neighborhoods — feels these pressures more sharply than almost anywhere else. Property tax increases here land on families already juggling rising housing costs, basic expenses, and stagnant wages. When property taxes rise, homeowners scramble to keep up, and renters feel the squeeze immediately as landlords pass those costs down.

Our district has a high concentration of manufactured home residents, retirees on fixed incomes, and working families living paycheck to paycheck. Many qualify for low-income tax reduction programs — but qualifying does not guarantee protection when corporations raise lot rents or when state policies shift school funding away from local levies. The financial burden keeps moving downhill, and it always rolls toward the people with the least room to absorb it.

And when state lawmakers push reforms before guaranteeing stable revenue for schools or cities, places like Dubuque — with large investments in public safety, infrastructure, and education — face the greatest risk. A statewide 2% levy cap may sound attractive, but in fast-growing areas or cities with aging infrastructure, it forces cuts that reduce public safety staffing, limit transit services, and undermine long-term neighborhood redevelopment. Those cuts hit communities like ours the hardest.

Families in District 71 deserve a tax system that works for them — not one that puts them on the edge every single year.

Ignite the Path Forward

To protect housing stability, we need laws that protect people, not just balance spreadsheets. At the state level, we must regulate corporate buyouts of mobile home parks so out-of-state firms can’t displace entire communities. We must strengthen tenant protections to ensure renters are shielded from sudden, extreme rent increases — including those caused by property tax spikes that renters didn’t choose and can’t vote on.

We need a property tax system that is fair, predictable, and rooted in community needs. That means reforming the rollback responsibly, ensuring local governments aren’t forced into service cuts, and guaranteeing that any shift in school funding to the state actually results in stability — not in more shortfalls that hurt teachers, students, and neighborhoods.

We must expand homeownership opportunities, protect seniors with tax freezes and credits, and push for renters’ rebates so the burden of rising taxes and rising rents doesn’t push families out of District 71. Housing should spark security, belonging, and hope — and with the right policies, we can make that real.

District 71 deserves to stay home. I’m fighting to protect that.

References

Barton, T. (2025, March 30). Iowa Republicans want to “reboot” Iowa’s property tax system. What it would do and could mean for communities. The Gazette. https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/iowa-republicans-want-to-reboot-iowas-property-tax-system-what-it-would-do-and-could-mean-for-co/

Iowa Legal Aid. (2025, August 4). Tax reduction for low-income Iowans owning mobile homes.https://iowalegalaid.org/resource/tax-reduction-for-low-income-iowans-owning-mobile-homes/

Mandal, A., & Walczak, J. (2025, March 24). Securing property tax relief in Iowa. Tax Foundation. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/state/iowa-property-tax-relief/

Murrey, B., & Wieciorkowski, A. (2025, April 9). Property tax reform: Targeting Iowa’s high local tax burden. Common Sense Institute. https://www.commonsenseinstituteus.org/iowa/research/taxes-and-fees/property-tax-reform-targeting-iowas-high-local-tax-burden