Over 20 people attended the first Meet Your Legislators event of 2025 at the Thomas Jefferson Gardens Welcome Center in Jefferson on Saturday.

House District 47 Representative Carter Nordman and District 24 Senator Jesse Green were on hand to provide updates and answer questions from attendees. After each legislator provided the committees that they were serving on, moderator Chuck Offenburger went right to the crowd for questions. Several topics were addressed, including the casino moratorium, changes to homeschooled students, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, cancer research and the proposals from Governor Reynolds, along with what both lawmakers agreed was the number one issue from Iowans was about reducing property taxes. 

Nordman said it is a balancing act when talking about giving Iowans property tax relief, but for local entities to continue to provide services. 

“It’s also a conversation with our local entities as well (including) our school boards, and our (county) supervisors, and our city councils, and working with them to ensure that we want to see property taxes go down, but we also want to ensure that we are providing the services that citizens need. So I know that both Ways and Means (Committee) Chair(s), both in the House and Senate, are working on a bill right now. We have not seen that bill. As soon as we do, we can dig into it, and then we can bring it back to our district and work with all those folks (and) work with our constituents to see what works best.”      

Another topic that was brought up and some time devoted to was about using eminent domain on agriculture land for an underground carbon dioxide pipeline. Green noted that Senate File 92 exempts the first phase of a proposed project by Summit Carbon Solutions, but would be applied to the second phase and any future projects that companies could not use eminent domain on agriculture land for underground carbon dioxide pipelines. 

“The reason I kept it narrow to carbon (dioxide) pipelines is because that lessens the opposition to the bill from other utility companies. And I also believe it reflects most of the (Senate) district where we believe there is something different about carbon (dioxide) than oil, natural gas, (and) water. It is really a public use, this carbon pipeline? I think 90 percent of the district would say ‘no.’”     

The next Meet Your Legislators forum will be held at the Welcome Center with Thomas Jefferson Gardens on Saturday, March 1st at 10:30am.