Moore, Shipley hold final briefing of 2026

Libraries and property tax reform were two of the biggest discussion items at Montgomery County’s second and final legislative briefing of 2026.
Iowa Rep. Tom Moore was joined by Iowa Sen. Tom Shipley at the Montgomery County History Center, where they discussed happenings in the Iowa legislature as well as answered questions and heard comments from constituents.
Moore started out the session by saying the Iowa House had a very busy week passing pieces of legislation.
“I don’t think we’ve passed this many bills in a week in 11 years. There were a total of 81 bills that we passed through the House. Some were good, some not so good. Some I was happy with and some I wasn’t. I think one thing that’s important to note is that throughout the year so far, we’ve had 128 bills pass through the Iowa house thus far, and of that number, only 13 of them have not been bipartisan or unanimous. I think that speaks to the work that’s being done in the House. I think we do a really good job of working together between the Republicans and the Democrats,” said Moore.
Some of the legislation Moore highlighted at the briefing included:
• Foster Parent Training: This takes away some requirements in foster parent training and gives DHS the discretion now to say things are duplicative. Moore believes it’s going to reduce the amount of time that is spent on repeat training and make parents more accessible to foster care.
• Right to Repair for DEF Systems of Farm Equipment: The major part of this bill provides that the original farm equipment manufacturers must make available, for farm equipment, diagnostic and repair information regarding the operation of a diesel exhaust fluid system (DEF), including technical updates, and software updates, “for no charge or in the same manner as the manufacturer makes such information available to ... authorized repair providers...” This bill will provide significant economic relief for Iowa farmers when it comes to operation and repair of an EPA mandated DEF system on farm equipment.
• Governor’s MAHA Bill: Requires nutrition continuing education for certain doctors and physician assistants. This was a component of Iowa’s RHTP application; requires healthy foods for SNAP and summer EBT; allows pharmacists to distribute Ivermectin for human consumption as an over-the-counter medicine without liability; prohibits schools from providing food and beverages with certain ingredients starting July 1, 2027; requires Iowa to join the Psychology Compact with 43 states, including all states surrounding Iowa. Amendment 8090 requires Iowa medical school students to complete at least 40 hours of coursework on nutrition and metabolic health prior to graduation, starting July, 2028.
Shipley also updated consituents at the briefing on some of the activity that has been taking place in the Iowa Senate. Shipley said they recently completed funnel week, which is when bills have to pass out of committee to keep moving  Shipley said the senate advanced legislation to punish people who set up cameras and invade privacy.
“While that’s a crime already, we’ve now changed things so that if you even attempt it, it’s a crime. Before if they set up a camera but it was found before anything was recorded it wasn’t as penalized. If you attempt to now, it’s a crime,” commented Shipley.
Also, the senate has advanced legislation to allow for lifetime hunting and fishing licenses to be sold the year a person turns 65. Currently, people have to wait until their 65th birthday, so they still have to buy individual licenses if their birthday occurs later in the year. Other legislation requires that public schools must accept legal tender as a form of payment for entering extracurricular athletic events, rather than it be restricted to credit, debit, or cash app payments.
Finally, Shipley weighed in on the Senate passage of 2% supplemental state aid for Iowa schools. While he still doesn’t think 2% is enough, there were other provisions Shipley liked.
One of the provisions of the bill is an increase in transportation funding. “What this funding does is to get a school’s transportation cost as close to the state average of $452.21 per student as possible. Some in my district receive zero dollars because their cost is below that. But for the others it amounts to $884,134 ranging from $11,171 to $191,747. I have fought to keep those dollars in place and extend the sunset on it,” stated Shipley. “One of the other parts regards the school budget guarantee dollars. This allows schools to levy property taxes to offset lower dollars due to lower enrollments. The new bill will have the state fill the budget guarantee rather than raise the property tax. Another provision is an increase for paraprofessional pay. These people do incredible work in our local schools and have earned this.”
Shipley said he’s also had to have some blunt conversations with legislators who don’t understand the necessity or benefit of operational sharing. Shipley said he’s happy to set the record straight with them.
“Out of the 17 school districts in my Senate district, I think there are only five  superintendents that are not shared. My urban colleagues have been on a rant about how we’ve got to get more efficient out here. I’ve explained to them that we’ve already been doing this efficiency thing for a very long time,” advised Shipley.
Red Oak Public Library director Kathi Most addressed the lawmakers regarding HF 2622, an act relating to public libraries, including eligibility requirements for state assistance and oversight by city councils. Most asked for the pair to relay a message to other lawmakers at the Capital.
“I know where you stand on these things, but I don’t think that some people understand the dynamic of funding and libraries yet. In the time that I’ve been in our library and in the time that I’ve been managing our library, we’ve seen $5 million of gifting come through, which actually goes through kind of the city works, because it’s helping fund the books, the reading, the materials, the programs, everything for the library, so that the city’s not having to fund that. I can honestly tell you, in the entire time I’ve been in my career, I have seen one time that donations went to the city, such as a memorial. I’m hoping that people realize that they could dismantle a very working system that not only helps our citizens, our libraries, our educators, our cities themselves. They could undo the dynamic of the gift that comes to libraries and help cities,” commented Most.
Shipley said that he’s already told the leadership in the Iowa Senate that he’s not touching anything that has to do with libraries.
“I helped kill a bill a few years ago that had to do with changes to public libraries, and I don’t think the guy who proposed it has ever been in a public library. I’ve seen what libraries around the region provide. It’s basically an after-school care facility. There’s more to libraries than books, and I have no desire to touch any of that. I think it’s misguided,” said Shipley.
Moore also said he supports libraries, but still thinks there needs to be details worked out on the legislation regarding age-appropriate books.
Connie Mellott also addressed Moore and Shipley, stating that House File 2104 regarding eminent domain in carbon pipelines should be passed without amendments. She also spoke strongly against SF 2431, which would dismantle township trustees.
“We need the grassroots network of people to handle our township issues. The supervisors have enough on their plate, and the trustees all have a clerk. I and my trustees are really hoping that there’s a no vote on that legislation,” explained Mellott.
Mellott also brought up SF 2447 and HF 2580 in regards to wind, solar, and battery storage systems, saying one size doesn’t fit all.
“One set of guidelines for different counties doesn’t make sense. For instance, the regulations it sets out for setbacks are dangerous. The lack of decommissioning requirements is unbelievable. For turbines in particular, the decibel levels are harmful. There are so many precautions, guidelines, and protections that these proposals omit. And if this bill passes, our county supervisors will not be able to implement those items that protect us. So there’s going to be a whole lot of loans and debts that we’re going to have to pay ourselves,” Melott said.
While Shipley agreed with Mellott on her points, when it came to the township trustees, he felt there was a driving force behind it
“I haven’t seen much activity of that, so I don’t know where that whole thing is going. I will tell you, I think the nexus of it is the number of taxing authorities we have in Iowa is over 3,000. That goes from trustees up to the hospital trustees. There’s all these different entities, and I think that’s where part of this thought comes from, is to cut down on the number of taxing authorities,” Shipley advised.
When asked about advances to property tax reform, Moore said the House bill basically sets a 2% hard cap, and it raises the homestead credit to  $25,000. While not on the Ways and Means Committee, Shipley said he expects they’ll get something figured out by the end of the session, but they may not know exactly what until the day they walk out.
One farmer in attendance told Moore and Shipley that his property taxes have gone up almost 40% in the last 15 years. At one time, he was paying $51,000 interest for a few years in a row. Now his property taxes are more than that, and they’ve jumped $2,000 in one year.
The legislators were then asked how they walked the fine line between the complaint they just heard, and the arguments from counties and cities that may have money taken away from them. Moore said there was an option.
“Either we reduce the tax income to cities and counties, or we reduce services, or we supplement that money from some other pot. The other pot is the general fund. To increase that, are we going to increase sales tax? We’ve lowered the income tax, we’ve got rid of the inheritance tax. Over the interim, our house leadership did an extensive survey around Iowa, and they found that 65% of the people are more in favor of property tax reduction than they are of maintaining services. And I say, well, you know what? They’re in favor of that until they don’t have the services. In many ways, it’s a no win,” Moore explained.
Shipley agreed that it was incredibly challenging to come up with a solution, as the system had been in place for so long.
“There’s three different parts of property taxes in Iowa, ag, residential, and commercial. And every time they thought they had it fixed, one of those legs just goes off that three-legged stool and it falls apart. If there was an easy answer, it would have been fixed a long time ago,” advised Shipley.
No further topics were discussed at the legislative briefing.