88th General Assembly · Iowa Funnel one-pager · Wednesday, November 11, 2026

SF 2047: Relating to the property tax exemption for property designated to be a native prairie or wetland and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions

Died when the session ended · The 2020 session adjourned on June 14, 2020, the General Assembly’s last regular session. Bills that didn’t pass both chambers died.

What it does

1(23) provides a property tax exemption for land designated as native prairie or land designated as a protected wetland by the department of natural resources if the property is not used for economic gain. This bill specifies that the receipt of payments under the federal wetlands reserve program or the federal agricultural conservation easement program shall not be considered a use for economic gain.7 provides that for a property tax credit or exemption enacted on or after January 1, 1997, if a state appropriation made to fund the credit or exemption is not sufficient to fully fund the credit or exemption, the political subdivision shall be required to extend to the taxpayer only that portion of the credit or exemption estimated by the department of revenue to be funded by the state appropriation.

Cost

See the fiscal note

The property tax exemption expansion is projected to reduce property taxes owed by owners of native prairie and protected wetland property and, as a result, increase the State General Fund appropriation for school aid and decrease local property tax revenue. T…

Senate subcommittee · named January 27, 2020

Sen. Waylon Brown (R)
Sen. Jerry Behn (R)
Sen. Giddens

Lobbying · 5 for, 0 against

For: Center for Rural Affairs; Iowa Chapter of Sierra Club; Iowa Conference of United Methodist Church; Iowa Environmental Council; Wells Fargo & Company

In plain words

January 21, 2020Filed in the Senate and sent to the Ways and Means committee
January 27, 2020Senate subcommittee named: Brown, Behn and Giddens
February 17, 2020Cost estimate (fiscal note) posted