Iowa Senate Democratic Leader

[Kay Henderson] Iowa Senate Democrats broke the Republicans super majority, but by only one seat. We'll discuss the 2026 legislative session with the Senate Democratic leader, Janice Weiner on this edition of Iowa Press.

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[Announcer] For decades Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond, celebrating more than 50 years on statewide Iowa PBS. This is the Friday, February 6th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

[Henderson] Our guest on this edition of Iowa Press is an Iowa City native who returned to her hometown after retiring from a career in the U.S. State Department as a foreign Service officer. She was elected to the Iowa City Council in 2023. She was elected to the Iowa Senate in late 2024. Her colleagues in the Senate chose her to be the Senate Democratic leader. Janice Weiner, welcome back to Iowa Press.

[Senator Janice Weiner] Thank you so much for having me.

[Henderson] Joining our conversation is Stephen Gruber-Miller of the Des Moines Register.

[Stephen Gruber-Miller] Senator Weiner, the governor's property tax proposal, one of the central pieces is a 2% cap on local governments revenue growth. You were, as Kay mentioned, a member of the Iowa Cities City Council. How would you have managed the city budget if that 2% cap were in effect?

[Weiner] If there were a 2% cap in effect, it would have been very challenging to deal with some some for example, with public safety and negotiations for their salaries and retirement. And one of the challenges with with putting in some ways an arbitrary number on is that no two cities are alike, no two counties are alike. Each of them have their own distinct needs. And basically, if we're going to do if we're going to end up with property tax form, we should end up with something that takes all that into account and is sufficiently flexible.

[Gruber-Miller] So do you have a number in mind, or are you saying that picking a number is the wrong approach?

[Weiner] I don't have a number in mind, and in part that's because I have no idea yet what we're going to see in terms of legislation before us. You mentioned the governor's proposal. There are there are three Republican proposals currently before the legislature, one in the House, one in the Senate. And as you mentioned, the governor's the House has done subcommittees on two of them. We haven't seen a subcommittee yet in the Senate. I just I have no idea at this point what the elements are that will come before us in in whatever bill we ultimately see.

[Gruber-Miller] Yeah. Well, in talking about the approach that some of those plans take, the governor and Senate Republicans are both looking at a certain age group of seniors and saying they want to either freeze or in some instances, maybe eliminate property taxes for seniors. Is that the right approach to look at an age group in that way?

[Weiner] What my caucus and I are looking at is making sure that whatever bill comes out helps the Iowans who need it the most. In some cases, those maybe some seniors. In some cases, it may be people who are not seniors. I think we have to be very careful when we when we look at at redoing this really complicated system that we don't end up with a bunch of unintended consequences. I've talked to people not in Iowa City. I've talked to people in some more rural districts, and some of them have told me that that sort of proposal that you describe in a pretty property, poor district would really hurt their school districts substantially. So it's, you know, it is it is a complex system. One of the things that we'd love to see is a simpler, more transparent system with some with some permanent fixes, but one where we're not ending up with a bunch of unintended consequences.

[Henderson] One of the elements of the plan that Senate Republican leader and the chair of the Ways and Means Committee and the Senate unveiled in January, was regarding the gas tax and raising it and indexing it for inflation. So the legislature would never again be forced to vote to raise the gas tax. If that were a standalone bill, is that something that you think would be good state policy?

[Weiner] That is a really good question because I'm skeptical that that my colleagues at least would be would find it acceptable to have a rolling tax increase without allowing a chance for the legislature to vote on it.

[Henderson] But would Democrats support it?

[Weiner] It's not something we've discussed. So I so I can't tell you. I know that in the past when there's been a gas tax increase, there was an agreement among the parties. I think people I think the, the, the parties produced votes proportionally, but we haven't discussed it at all. So I can't tell you if something like that would move and how many votes they would get from us. But I'll admit I'm highly skeptical it would happen in an election year.

[Henderson] There's also something called a local option sales tax, and it's 1%. And this proposal that Senate Republican leaders have advanced would let local municipalities raise a local option sales tax half a percent with a vote of the people to make up for having a cap. This 2% or 4% or whatever it might be. Cap again. Is that something that you think would be helpful for municipalities to have another route to collect taxes from another source?

[Weiner] I mean, I think most municipalities around the state already already have lost. I know that the three largest cities in Johnson County just voted in this past fall, and we were some of the last. It has it has a lot of advantages. I believe that half of it also has to go toward property tax relief. So even if they were increasing the amount, there's that would also a half of that would still need to go to property tax relief. And when you are raising, when you are raising sales tax, that is the most regressive tax. And so you would be putting more of the tax burden on the people in the state who can least afford it. Working Iowans.

[Henderson] House Democrats released a property tax relief plan in early January. Will Senate Republicans release a plan before debate starts in earnest on the Senate floor?

[Weiner] I mean, are you asking if the Senate Democrats will release a plan? We don't intend to release a plan. We will. We will be looking at the various elements of the different plans that are on the table. Our for us, it's really important, as I said, that it that it be transparent, that it be simpler, that it helped the folks who really need it and that people in their communities have a voice in what their communities are going to support, so that we're not, you know, really strapping cities or towns and that the voters there really have a choice.

[Gruber-Miller] I want to ask a few questions about eminent domain and carbon pipelines. As you know, Republicans are still trying to find some agreement on this topic. After Governor Reynolds vetoed a bill that got to her desk last year. So Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh has proposed widening the corridor where pipeline projects can be built to allow them to talk to more landowners and theoretically avoid landowners who are unwilling to give access to their property so that there would be less need for eminent domain. I'm curious if you feel like his proposal has enough protections for landowners. Some of the criticism has been that it would still allow for eminent domain.

[Weiner] I believe that that Senator Klimesh proposal probably would still allow for for some eminent domain. But I mean, if we stand back and look at this, it feels a little bit like Groundhog Day, which we just passed. We have the one bill passed in the House, which which we've already seen will never see the light of day in in the Senate. I, I'm not sure yet if the majority leader in the Senate has the votes to pass his bill. I don't know what a final solution is going to look like on a final. What what a bill might look like on this. I would have preferred, particularly after the governor's veto, our Republican colleagues on both sides of the rotunda had plenty of time to sit down and come up with a compromise that would work for both of them, and they didn't. So we are back essentially where we were before we even debated in some in some ways last year, and people deserve an answer on this, but I don't even know if anything is going to pass this year.

[Gruber-Miller] You mentioned not knowing if Senator Klimsch has the votes for his proposal. Has he or his staff approached you at all about Democratic votes? And if if he does, what would it take for you to provide some Democratic support?

[Weiner] He's not approached us. The. And if and when that happens, we will have that conversation. So I can't tell you what the what the result would be right now.

[Gruber-Miller] Sure. Last week on the show, your house colleague Brian Meyer said that this pipeline should be built and that he thinks that there's a majority of people who want to see this Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline built in Iowa. I'm just curious, you know, as we talk about bills on eminent domain and restricting certain things, what is your view of of summit's project? Do you think it should be built?

[Weiner] All all I can say is that what is what we're looking at this year isn't what we looked at last year. And I'm not going to because we don't have a caucus position on this at this point. I'm not going to say what ought to happen. I do think that Iowans deserve a vote on this, and they deserve clarity on it. And it's up to the majority party, which has been in power for nearly ten years, to figure this out and get it across the finish line.

[Henderson] There's also a proposal that Stephen and I covered this past week to tax the liquid carbon that's running through the pipeline. Do you think that's a wise move?

[Weiner] What I think it is, is an admission that there are holes in the budget and that they don't have enough money coming in right now. We can see that with a $1.26 billion deficit running this current year. To me, it's an admission that that they have they have huge problems with the budget now and going forward.

[Henderson] The topic of cancer has been talked about at the state House in earnest for the past few years. And before we start our conversation here, just for the benefit of viewers, we're having this conversation before the latest data about Iowa's cancer rate is being released. This past week. In your view, what should the state do next?

[Weiner] So last year, a the legislature allocated $1 million to cancer. And I know that the University of Iowa and the Holden Cancer Research Center, which is really the gold standard here, has put it to good use. But in terms of dealing with our cancer plague, it's really a drop in the bucket. The we need to be able to adequately fund cancer research in the state. We can't always depend on NIH or other funding, as we've seen. So we need to have serious conversations about that. In the meantime, there are some low hanging fruit that the legislature could deal with, and we know that we have high radon levels in this state, and we could do more on radon mitigation. We know that that most other states have regulate tanning beds for young people, which can really produce really serious melanoma later on in life. We ought to regulate that. And we need to do something to reduce vaping and smoking, especially among young people. Otherwise, based on the statistics I've heard, we could end up with some of the highest lung cancer rates in the country within ten years. So those are things that the that the legislature could absolutely do this year.

[Henderson] The first two things you mentioned, there are bills pending on that. Last year, the Senate, the current Senate majority leader, expressed support for taxing vaping products in the same manner that cigarettes are taxed. Is that something that you think would happen this year.

[Weiner] If he puts forward a bill? We will see. We'll see what happens. I mean, this is cancer is not something that any of us can take lightly. You saw last -- it wasn't it wasn't even two weeks ago that my colleague, Senator Drey announced her cancer diagnosis. And we've had way too many cases of cancer, even within the small Senate family. Her predecessor, Senator De Witt, died of cancer not less than a year ago. We need to, for the sake of all Iowans. This is this is basically an all Iowa issue. It doesn't care about your political party or how you voted. It doesn't care about where you live. But we need to care about it for all Iowans.

[Henderson] Water quality is often a part of this conversation. What do Senate Democrats support in terms of reducing the level of nitrates in Iowa's waterways?

[Weiner] The one thing that I'm that is a good that is good is that there now seems to be a recognition across the state that we have to do something about our water quality and that Iowans deserve clean water. We are introducing a number of bills at a minimum, really, at a minimum, we need to be able to fund our water sensors so that we know what's in the water. Because if we know where the problem is, then we can deal with it. We should also, I think, increase the the enforcement capacity and finding capacity of the DNR so they can help get to the heart of some of this. And I would truly want to bring everybody to the table so that we can figure out solutions, all Iowa solutions going forward, because much, you know, there there may be links to cancer. And much like you said, we said earlier with respect to cancer itself, it doesn't care. The water issues don't care where you live. We need to work together on this rural and urban and everybody together.

[Gruber-Miller] We started this week to see the first signs of movement on the annual education funding conversation. Senate Republicans have proposed a 1.75% school funding increase. I believe Senate Democrats want to see more. What is that number and why? What is the case? You you will make to your colleagues about why they need to to pass more than that.

[Weiner] So whether it's 1.75%, as the Senate Republicans have proposed, or 2% as the governor has proposed, and I don't know if the House Republicans have proposed anything yet. It is a question of what that means for individual families and individual kids and their school districts. And if you fund at a level that low, that's well below the current rate of inflation, what we're going to end up seeing, and I've talked to people in my own school district and school districts in, in more in more rural areas are cuts to teachers, cuts to computer science, cuts to Stem. We just saw we just saw a 100 year orchestra program get cut in Boone. I heard that there is also the there are some school districts, or at least one school district may be considering putting two grades together. This will have real a real impact on on our children's education. And we ought to be. It should be a proud Iowa tradition to invest in our kids, to invest in our schools, in particularly in our public schools, that educate 90% of our children. This is not investing in our schools. This is barely getting by.

[Gruber-Miller] So a few minutes ago, you mentioned the state's budget situation, where currently the state is spending more than it's receiving in revenue. How do you square those things to be able to make that investment in education?

[Weiner] I don't see how we move forward as a state and bring more people into the state and grow our economy and grow our tax base. If we don't have a really top notch public education system, we there's currently a lot of money, something like $340 million this year being spent on the voucher program. I would like to see that redirected into public schools because at base, public money is for public schools.

[Henderson] There are also proposals in the House of Representatives where there is now a House Higher Education Committee that would deal with the regents, institutions. And as previously mentioned, you live in Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. One of them would create a tuition guarantee program whereby if a student enters the University of Iowa in the first year and pays a tuition rate, they would pay that rate for four years. Do you see that as something that would be helpful for parents and students to prepare for higher education?

[Weiner] I mean, the concept may be helpful, and I certainly understand the need to to bring down the cost of higher education. I just really worry about the impact on our institutions of higher education. The university, the regents, universities, state funding has gone down by. Over the last decades, it used to fund virtually about two thirds of of the cost of running the universities. Now that's flipped upside down. And it's tuition that funds two thirds of the costs of running our universities. Something like that. Or tuition freeze, really risks cuts and fewer young people coming to our universities. We've seen that in other places, including at Drake when they tried it. I don't think it's a recipe for success. We there are possibilities for scholarships from the endowment and other places. We just we need to find a different solution.

[Gruber-Miller] One of the governor's proposals this year has to do with codifying an executive order. She passed on antisemitism, and it requires regents, universities and schools to submit a report about anti-Semitic actions that this bill started moving in the House this week. It got some pushback from some folks who traveled from Iowa City who were concerned with the definition of anti-Semitism that the bill uses, that they said that they're they were concerned it would conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. I'm curious if you have looked at the governor's proposal or what you whether you would support it.

[Weiner] I have not looked at the governor's proposal. I heard about it briefly this morning for the first time. I haven't seen it in the Senate. We'll look at it, obviously, but the. There is freedom of expression enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and our Constitution. We have to be very careful when we when we when we go about looking at basically mandating reporting.

[Henderson] There's a stimulant called kratom that comes from the leaves of a tree that's basically native to Southeast Asia. And the Iowa City City Council a couple of years ago, considered age limitations on the businesses in Iowa City that sell kratom. A committee in the House and a committee in the Senate have advanced bills to ban it. In the past year or so, there's been a synthetic version of it that is far more powerful. People say they use it for pain relief and other methods. Others say it's highly addictive. Do you think the state should ban kratom?

[Weiner] I think the federal government should look at it. I think this is it. I think this is a federal issue. I know that these bills are moving forward, but I think the best course of action would be for the FDA and perhaps the DEA to look at it and, and come and come out with a nationwide standard.

[Gruber-Miller] There have been several bills this year and in recent years on vaccines. You know, many of them, some that have passed the Senate that expand exemptions or reduce requirements. The House, a House committee is moving forward, a bill that would say you don't have to be vaccinated to attend school. I'm curious what you think of the impact of some of these proposals is broadly.

[Weiner] I mean, when we look. At what we've done in this state over the past year, we've my Senate Democrats and many volunteers knocked doors from literally from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River. We never heard anybody ask for anything like banning or getting rid of vaccine mandates. What we heard them ask for was help with housing, help with childcare, help with the quality of our public schools, help with our cancer rates. We're even seeing schools close for a day or two right now because of high levels of influenza. I'm a believer in science, the science behind vaccines is clear. It protects. It protects the kids. It protects the teachers. It protects vulnerable members of of society who can't be vaccinated. And it prevents a lot of unnecessary deaths.

[Henderson] A bill that would forbid smoking on the casino floors has failed in a Senate subcommittee. It advanced in a House committee, but it seems like that's where it will die. What's your view of smoking at the state's casinos? Smoking is not allowed at any of the neighboring states casinos, except for Missouri.

[Weiner] I mean, I think there is some bipartisan support for for that. As we as we saw in the House side, it brings me back to cancer. I don't think that workers should be exposed to secondhand smoke. Personally, I can't tell you how other people in my caucus would vote. But at some point I think we should take a look at a proposal like that.

[Gruber-Miller] It's Iowa Press, so we are legally required again to ask you about the caucuses. The Democrats are proposing to make Iowa among the early states in 2028. They're going to make that case. Do you think Iowa needs to be the first state, or would be being within the early states? Would that be sufficient?

[Weiner] I think Iowans need to continue to make the case as to why we're a bellwether, and we, my caucus, really did make the case. Over this past year, in three special elections, about how important organizing is at the county party level, about how important it is to run really good candidates rooted in their communities, and to get people out doing grassroots work. I'm not an expert on the caucuses, but I am at this point an expert on how crucial it is that all 99 of our counties be organized and that we often are a leader in that way. When Mike Zimmer got elected to the Senate just over a year ago, it was literally one week after the inauguration in a blue collar rural area. When Caitlin Drey got elected to the Senate this past August in sort of a a Republican leaning urban suburban area, we saw the same thing. And then we we had one more special election over the holidays in a in a blue leaning area of of West Des Moines. That's where our focus needs to be. Our focus needs to be on whatever it's going to take to recruit good candidates, do the grassroots work and get them across the line.

[Henderson] Well, I have to pay attention to the clock and we are out of time for this conversation today. Thank you for being here.

[Weiner] Thank you very much for having me.

[Henderson] You may watch other episodes of Iowa Press at iowapbs.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching today.

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[Announcer] Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation, the Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

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[Announcer] The Bob and Doreen Sheppard Family. Proud supporters of educational programing seen only on Iowa PBS.

Banking in Iowa goes beyond transactions. Banks work to help people and small businesses succeed, and Iowa banks are committed to building confident banking relationships. Iowa banks, your partner through it all.