ITR Live: Iowa Politics and Conservative Policy

Iowans for Tax Relief
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ITR Live is published by Iowans for Tax Relief, bringing you insights on Iowa politics, conservative tax policy, government accountability, and the fight for limited government. Hosted by Chris Hagenow, each episode features sharp commentary, behind-the-scenes analysis from the Iowa Capitol, and an occasional laugh—always with the taxpayer in mind. Whether we’re breaking down the latest legislation, tracking local government spending, or exploring how policies impact your wallet, ITR Live keeps you informed and engaged. Subscribe for honest conversations about conservative politics in Iowa.

  1. 5d ago

    Week in Review: Opening Attacks, ESA "Audits", and the Electoral College

    Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back in the Hendrickson Library for a week-in-review episode — Chris flying without his Dr. Pepper Zero. Trivia wraps last week's Smoot-Hawley question and a new one goes out just in time for Independence Day: what president was born on July 4th? The episode opens on the Ian Roberts saga — the KCCI interview, the body cam arrest footage, and the stubborn contingent of Iowa liberals still defending him. From there, a quick take on the Iran ceasefire deal: $300 billion, sanctions relief, and a memorandum of understanding that raises more questions than it answers. Senator Joni Ernst wants to know where the money is coming from, and Chris and John share the concern. The back half turns to Iowa. Rob Sand's residency hit on Zach Lahn gets dissected — Chris sees it as an act of desperation that wastes the political capital Sand needs to actually define his candidacy. Sand's self-described "audit" of the Iowa Students First (ESA) program draws an equally pointed response: it's a partisan press conference, not an audit, and private school families across Iowa are paying attention. John closes with a piece he authored on the Electoral College and its importance to rural states — prompted by Virginia's governor signing on to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The episode ends with a preview of what will become a regular theme between now and November: vote yes on the constitutional amendment to make it harder to raise taxes in Iowa. 0:12 Welcome & housekeeping 1:44 Trivia: Smoot-Hawley answer & July 4th question 4:36 Ian Roberts KCCI interview and arrest footage 7:11 Liberals still defending Roberts 9:17 Iran ceasefire deal 12:46 DOGE: what happened to the savings? 14:16 Sand's residency hit on Lahn 18:10 Sand's ESA "audit" 23:35 ESA, private schools, and taxpayer dollars 25:31 ITR poll coming soon 26:05 John's Electoral College article 27:26 Virginia joins National Popular Vote Compact 30:35 Jungle primaries and left-wing election changes 33:28 Constitutional amendment — vote yes this fall

    34 min

  2. Jun 12

    Lahn and Sand Pick Their VP — What the Picks Say

    Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back in the Hendrickson Library with a packed episode covering Iowa's fast-moving post-primary political landscape. Both gubernatorial candidates have now selected their running mates: Rob Sand tapped Dave Muhlbauer, a farmer from western Iowa, while Zach Lahn chose State Representative Derek Wulf of Black Hawk County, also a farmer. Chris and John break down the strategy behind each pick, why Wulf stands out as a particularly strong choice for Lahn, and what the selection of two agricultural running mates signals about where both campaigns think the race will be won. The conversation turns to the broader general election dynamics shaping up between Lahn and Sand. Chris and John assess how quickly the Republican Party has consolidated around Lahn, the head start Sand's campaign has built toward a general election operation, and how the scrutiny of a real general election contest may complicate Sand's carefully constructed moderate image. A Republican Party audio drop this week — featuring Sand openly calling for political retribution on judicial nominations — gives the Lahn campaign exactly the kind of contrast material it needs to make the "governor for all Iowans" sell a harder one for Sand. The second half of the episode takes up two policy-driven stories. First, the final report on Iowa's Universal Basic Income pilot — a project run through several central Iowa cities that distributed $500 monthly stipends to participants. The report's conclusions, citing reduced stress and improved "sense of mattering," prompt a pointed exchange about what government is actually for, who's paying, and why local governments have no business engineering social outcomes with taxpayer dollars. Chris and John connect this directly to Iowa's property tax problem and the fiscal absurdity of local governments playing philanthropist. Finally, a Des Moines Register story on the city of Des Moines reconsidering its tax incentive programs — including TIF and property tax abatements — gives Chris and John a chance to explore when these tools have merit and when they're simply political ribbon-cutting at taxpayer expense. 0:13 Welcome & housekeeping 2:24 Trivia: Laddie Boy & Smoot-Hawley 5:01 Correction & running mate announcements 5:52 Sand picks Muhlbauer, Lahn picks Derek Wulf 8:22 Why Wulf is a strong pick for Lahn 10:32 GOP consolidation & Lahn's general election ramp-up 12:22 Sand's media advantage and the contrast campaign ahead 13:37 Sand audio drop & turning him into a generic Democrat 14:34 Andy Beshear visits Iowa — 2028 implications 15:32 Iowa's UBI pilot: background and ITR's role 18:15 Dissecting the report — who pays for "feeling mattered"? 21:22 UBI, local government overreach, and property taxes 25:59 Des Moines reconsiders TIF and tax incentives 28:05 When incentives work — and when they're ribbon-cutting 30:33 Free market vs. government-directed development 33:28 Sign off

    34 min

  3. Jun 5

    Iowa Primary Results: What Lahn's Win Means for the Fall

    The Iowa primary is in the books, and Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back in the Hendrickson Library to break it all down. The headliner on the Republican side was the governor's race, where Zach Lahn edged out Congressman Randy Feenstra 38% to 37.2% — a razor-thin margin that nonetheless produced a clear nominee. Chris and John unpack what drove Lahn's late momentum, why Feenstra came up short despite his early advantages in money and name recognition, and what the rapid consolidation of Republican support behind Lahn says about where the party is headed. On the Senate side, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson dispatched Jim Carlin nearly 3-to-1 and enters the general as a formidable candidate. Democrats nominated Josh Turek over Zach Walz in a race that revealed the Schumer establishment's continued grip on the party machinery — and Chris and John assess whether Turek's positioning as a centrist will hold up under general election scrutiny. A handful of hotly contested legislative primaries also drew attention, including the upset loss of Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, the strong win by taxpayer champion Mike Bussell, and the survival of two incumbent senators despite well-funded challenges. Looking ahead to November, Chris and John preview what shapes up as a genuinely competitive fall cycle — a challenging environment for Republicans given the historical headwinds of a second presidential midterm, but one where Iowa's Republican registration advantage and strong candidates at the top of the ticket keep the outcome far from predetermined. The Lahn vs. Rob Sand governor's race figures to be a substantive, issues-driven campaign, and both hosts are eager to see the two square off in debates. Water quality, foreign land ownership, and school choice are among the issues likely to take center stage. Before closing, Chris flags a critically important ballot measure Iowa voters will decide this fall: a proposed constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds supermajority of the legislature to raise taxes. This is a major ITR priority. With states like Illinois and Colorado moving in the opposite direction — raising income taxes and eyeing progressive tax structures — Iowa has an opportunity to lock in a foundational taxpayer protection. Chris and John will have much more to say on this in the weeks and months ahead.

    29 min

  4. May 6

    Legislative Recap

    The Iowa Legislature finally wrapped up Sunday evening after an all-weekend push, and Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are here to make sense of what actually happened. The headline: Iowa passed a meaningful property tax bill built around a 2% revenue limitation — the reform ITR has championed for years. It's not a dramatic overnight cut, but it puts a real ceiling on what local governments can collect, and that's how lasting property tax relief gets built. The bill does more than the cap alone. Changes to the school funding formula and the SAVE fund will direct more dollars toward property tax relief over time, and new limits on local government fund balances close a loophole that's allowed governments to accumulate reserves while still levying at full rates. Some provisions didn't survive — a gas tax increase, a new local option sales tax, and senior-specific relief all fell out of the final version. The other story from the session — and arguably the bigger long-term win — is a constitutional amendment headed to Iowa voters in November that would require a two-thirds legislative majority to raise the income tax. More than two-thirds of Iowans already support it. If it passes, it becomes one of the most durable taxpayer protections in state history. 0:00:13 - Welcome: Post-Session Recap Episode 0:02:17 - Trivia 0:04:36 - The Session Ran All Weekend — Here's What Happened 0:05:37 - The Main Win: Iowa's 2% Revenue Limitation Explained 0:07:25 - What's In and Out of the Cap 0:09:12 - TIF Reform 0:10:46 - School Funding Formula 0:12:09 - SAVE Fund 0:13:39 - Ending Fund Balances 0:15:37 - Is This a Big Cut? 0:18:52 - What Didn't Make Ii 0:22:07 - The Two-Thirds Constitutional Amendment 0:27:36 - Federal Grant Transparency and Iowa's Medicaid Shortfall 0:29:43 - Civic Education Bill 0:31:06 - Looking Ahead: Primary Season Is Here

    32 min

  5. Apr 24

    Whose Budget Comes First? Iowa's Property Tax Debate

    Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back in the Hendrickson Library with a construction update and a timely speed limit tangent that turns into a teachable moment. The legislature just passed a bill raising Iowa's rural speed limit from 55 to 60 — a bill Chris introduced in 2020 and couldn't get out of subcommittee, partly citing the first line of a Sammy Hagar song. The fiscal note on that bill was $2.3 million. The fiscal note on this year's version? $825,000 — for what is likely a similar number of signs, six years of inflation later. The point: fiscal notes are educated guesses, not gospel, and deserve scrutiny before they drive policy decisions. The main event is a detailed update on Iowa's property tax bill. The House picked up the Senate file, amended it with their own language, and passed it 64 to 23 — with three Democrats crossing the aisle — sending it back to the Senate. Chris and John walk through the standout moment from the House floor debate: Ways and Means Chairman Carter Nordman's defense of the 2% hard spending cap. His argument is the one that matters most — that for too long, the certainty of government budgets has taken priority over family budgets, and this bill flips that script. The opposition's counterargument — that rising assessments, not spending, are the real culprit — actually makes the case for the cap. If local governments won't cut levy rates on their own when assessments rise, that's precisely why a hard cap is necessary in the first place. One key difference between the House and Senate bills that got significant attention at the public hearing: the Senate bill would revisit a 2012 reform that moved multi-residential properties — apartment buildings — into the residential tax classification. Senate supporters have argued that rebalancing it is part of delivering broader property tax fairness. Developers and real estate interests who testified at the House public hearing raised concerns that the change could put upward pressure on rents and affect senior living and retirement communities, where margins are already tight. It's a legitimate debate, and it's now one of the more prominent points of negotiation as the Senate considers its next move on House-amended Senate File 2472.

    34 min

  6. Apr 17

    Fiscal Notes, Chore Coats, and the National Popular Vote Scheme

    Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson are back at the Hendrickson Library for another episode of ITR Live, checking in on Iowa politics as the legislative session heads into its final stretch and the June primary begins to take shape. With 46 days until primary day, the race for governor is heating up — and candidates across the board are hitting the airwaves in chore coats and barn settings, leaning hard into the affordability message. Chris and John break down what that word actually means: grocery bills, gas prices, monthly expenses — and trace the root causes back to Biden-era inflationary spending, a broken border policy that drove up housing demand, and the steady resistance from the left to every meaningful tax reform Iowa has pursued. On the legislative front, the session appears likely to run into overtime as negotiators work toward a property tax deal. The Senate and House are each operating from separate proposals — the Senate bill trimmed back its senior exemption and local option sales tax provisions, while the House bill, aligned with Governor Reynolds, maintains a clean 2% revenue limitation without changes to the rollback formula. Chris walks through the mechanics of fiscal notes — the Legislative Services Agency documents that score bills for their budget impact — and explains why, in a property tax system this complex, a uniform revenue limitation is the clearest and most defensible tool for delivering real relief. The bottom line: if you don't control spending, you don't control property taxes. Beyond property taxes, the House passed a school choice bill with language to protect private schools from Department of Education overregulation — a meaningful safeguard for educational freedom. The budget targets between chambers are reportedly close, though the eminent domain question tied to the carbon capture pipeline remains unresolved. Pressure to wrap up is real: legislators want to get back to their districts to campaign, and under Iowa ethics rules, they can't collect PAC money while session is in session. In the bonus segment, John brings two items worth watching nationally. Iowa climbed five spots — from 30th to 25th — in the 19th edition of ALEC's Rich States Poor States index, driven largely by the flat tax and broader tax reform efforts, even as competition from other reform-minded states intensifies. More alarming: Virginia has joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, meaning its electoral votes would go to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of how Virginians vote. Chris and John make the case that this scheme is constitutionally dangerous, practically unworkable at a national recount scale, and fundamentally designed to dilute the influence of states with sound election integrity laws — handing presidential elections to the largest TV markets in the country. 0:00:13 - Welcome Back to the Hendrickson Library 0:02:28 - Trivia: Iowa's Theodore Roosevelt-Era Treasury Secretary 0:04:01 - Governor's Race: 46 Days to the Primary 0:05:09 - TV Ad Trends: Every Candidate Has a Chore Coat 0:07:16 - What "Affordability" Actually Means 0:09:40 - Tracing the Affordability Crisis Back to Policy Choices 0:12:52 - When Everything Gets Blamed on Tariffs 0:13:49 - Will There Be a Republican Gubernatorial Debate? 0:15:46 - Iowa Legislature: Heading Into Overtime 0:16:24 - Property Tax Reform: Senate vs. House Proposals 0:23:47 - Fiscal Notes 101: How Bills Get Scored at the Capitol 0:28:41 - Why a Revenue Limitation Is the Heart of Property Tax Reform 0:32:32 - Hendrickson Bonus Coverage 0:33:18 - ALEC Rich States Poor States: Iowa Moves Up to #25 0:34:51 - Virginia Joins the National Popular Vote Compact 0:37:01 - Why the Electoral College Must Be Defended

    41 min

  7. Apr 2

    ITR Tax Day: Iowa's Conservative Record & Property Tax Endgame

    Iowa's conservative tax reform story didn't happen by accident — and Governor Kim Reynolds made that crystal clear at the annual ITR/NFIB Tax Day Luncheon in Des Moines. With roughly 200 attendees packing the Hilton downtown, Chris Hagenow and John Hendrickson recap what the governor had to say about Iowa's decade-long transformation from one of the worst tax climates in the country to one of the best. From income tax reform to inheritance tax elimination to government efficiency, Reynolds made the case that Iowa's success is a model for the nation — and that the secret ingredient has always been fiscal discipline alongside the tax cuts, not instead of them. The numbers back it up. New IRS migration data for 2023 shows red states gained $37.2 billion in adjusted gross income and nearly 500,000 new tax filers, while blue states lost $41 billion and over 500,000 filers. Iowa is part of that story. Meanwhile, Washington State — which had no income tax — just enacted a 9.9% rate, and companies like Starbucks are already eyeing exits. Chris and John break down what this means for Iowa's competitive position and why the fiscal foundation Reynolds built is what makes continued reform possible. Property taxes are the unfinished business of Iowa's reform era, and Governor Reynolds called it plainly at the luncheon: it's the last big thing she wants to get done before leaving office. With the House, Senate, and governor each carrying a bill and session winding down, Chris and John dig into the state of negotiations — the 2% cap, growth factors, TIF reform, SAVE fund acceleration, and the importance of making sure whatever passes actually limits spending. The point is made clearly: if local governments can simply raise franchise fees, increase bonding, or find other workarounds, the reform won't deliver real relief to Iowa taxpayers. The governor's race got a quick update, with Congressman Randy Feenstra on television making the case for continuing to lower — and eventually eliminate — Iowa's income tax, Adam Steen hitting the mail, and Zach Lahn running a statewide tour focused on land ownership issues. The ITR Local Government Symposium is coming this summer — details ahead at taxrelief.org. Like and subscribe to ITR Live on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and share the show with someone who cares about Iowa taxes. 00:00 Welcome & Intro 00:58 Tax Day Luncheon Recap 02:38 Trivia Question 03:59 Iowa Tax Reform Legacy 07:34 Fiscal Discipline & Tax Cuts 11:16 Red State Migration Data 14:20 Reynolds on Property Taxes 16:01 Property Tax Cap Negotiations 20:00 Local Government Efficiency 23:05 Spending Cap Loopholes Warning 27:46 Taxpayer Voice at the Capitol 29:14 Governor's Race Update 31:40 Feenstra on Income Tax 33:45 One Size Fits All Debate 38:22 Closing

    39 min

  8. Mar 20

    Your Iowa Property Tax Bill Is Going Up — Here's Exactly How Much

    Property tax budget hearing statement season is here — and if you flipped that mailer over, stared at confusing percentages, and had no idea what you were looking at, this episode was made for you. Chris Hagenow and ITR Foundation Policy Director Dr. Sarah Curry break down exactly how to read the statement that arrived in the mail: what to focus on (dollar amounts, not the levy rate), what to ignore (the back side full of hypothetical calculations), and where to go for real information. As Sarah puts it simply: if the dollars collected are going up, your taxes are going up. The levy rate simply won't tell you that story — but the dollars will. ITR has built a free property tax calculator at itrlocal.org that cuts through the noise. Enter your assessed value from last year and this year, then the current and proposed levy rates from your statement, and it will tell you exactly how many more — or fewer — dollars you will pay. The calculator doesn't require an accounting degree — it requires knowing two numbers. A companion guide on the website walks you through finding those numbers on your county auditor's site. Sarah also shares takeaways from a recent community visit to Rockwell City, where she walked taxpayers through property tax statements and found real hunger for these tools. If the numbers send you to a public budget hearing, her strategic advice is clear: don't try to argue the details of their budget back at officials — they know more about it than you, and you'll lose that argument. Instead, talk about your own budget. Your mortgage, your medical bills, your family's reality. They cannot argue against your lived experience. That philosophy runs parallel to what's moving at the Iowa Capitol: a proposal to cap local government property tax growth at 2% per year. Sarah previews the 2026 ITR Local Government Symposium. New this year are dedicated breakout sessions for city and county officials, school board members, and community advocates, with a 30-year school finance veteran leading the school session and a legal update from Alan Ostergren. The ITR Tax Day Luncheon is coming up April 1st — register now at taxrelief.org. 00:00 Welcome & Intro01:39 Icebreaker: Women's Pro Tackle Football03:34 Reading Your Property Tax Statement07:38 The itrlocal.org Tax Calculator12:25 Taxpayer Questions Across Iowa15:41 How to Talk at Budget Hearings18:18 The 2% Property Tax Cap23:08 Local Government Symposium July 1627:55 Tax Day Luncheon & Announcements28:53 Closing Thoughts

    31 min
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About

ITR Live is published by Iowans for Tax Relief, bringing you insights on Iowa politics, conservative tax policy, government accountability, and the fight for limited government. Hosted by Chris Hagenow, each episode features sharp commentary, behind-the-scenes analysis from the Iowa Capitol, and an occasional laugh—always with the taxpayer in mind. Whether we’re breaking down the latest legislation, tracking local government spending, or exploring how policies impact your wallet, ITR Live keeps you informed and engaged. Subscribe for honest conversations about conservative politics in Iowa.

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