Veterans: the homestead tax credit
What they say
His campaign says he passed legislation to strengthen the veterans homestead tax credit.
“passing meaningful legislation to strengthen the veterans homestead tax credit”
What the record shows ·
He is the sole sponsor of H.F. 79 (2023), which would have amended Iowa Code section 425.15, the disabled veteran homestead tax credit, to extend a partial credit to veterans with a service-connected disability rating below one hundred percent; it was introduced and referred to the Veterans Affairs Committee on January 20, 2023 and had no further action. Section 425.15 has not been amended since 2021 Acts, chapter 148, section 1, before his first legislative session. What the record does contain is a vote. On May 2, 2023 the House concurred in the Senate amendment to H.F. 718, a Ways and Means Committee bill floor-managed by Representatives Dawson and Kaufmann that he neither sponsored nor managed, and on the question "Shall the bill pass?" he was one of 94 ayes against one nay; it was signed May 4, 2023 as 2023 Acts, chapter 71, and among other provisions it raised a different benefit, the military service tax exemption in Iowa Code section 426A.11, to four thousand dollars of taxable value for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2023. The report the campaign cites, a May 2023 KMAland report, says he "was among Iowa House legislators supporting a property tax reform package" that "more than doubles a property tax exemption for veterans by increasing it to $4,000 in taxable value"; it names an exemption rather than the homestead credit, and describes him as supporting the package rather than writing it.
Limit: He voted for the 2023 law that raised the veterans' property-tax exemption from $1,852 to $4,000. It was a Ways and Means bill, not his; his own bill on the credit got no action.