Sen. Mark Lofgren

Maddy summarySF 45, known as the "Iowa Land Redevelopment Trust Act," allows cities, counties, and townships to create independent land redevelopment trusts. These trusts are designed to acquire and manage dilapidated, abandoned, blighted, and tax-delinquent properties. The bill aims to help communities return these properties to productive use, with the goal of revitalizing areas, providing affordable housing, and attracting new industry. Each trust would be governed by a board of directors.

Maddy summarySF 170 amends a prior law related to the historic preservation tax credit for individuals and corporations. The bill extends the date for preserving existing rights for these tax credits from January 1, 2023, to July 1, 2023. This means that historic preservation tax credits issued or awarded before July 1, 2023, will not be subject to the reduced refundability changes enacted in 2022. Taxpayers holding these credits will retain their original rights to claim or redeem them, including any carryforward amounts.

Maddy summarySF 22 regulates how drivers can use electronic devices while operating a vehicle. It specifically addresses the use of these devices in a voice-activated or hands-free mode. The bill establishes penalties for any violations of these new rules. These provisions and penalties are set to become effective on July 1, 2025.

Maddy summaryThis bill modifies the types of costs that counties can pay for using their local emergency medical services (EMS) trust funds. It expands the eligible expenditures to specifically include the salaries and wages of emergency medical care providers who deliver EMS. This change would allow counties that have established these voter-approved funds to use them to cover personnel costs for their EMS staff, directly affecting both the counties and their emergency medical care providers.

Maddy summarySF 139 updates Iowa's programs to address abandoned properties and underutilized commercial sites. It creates a two-year redevelopment tax credit for grayfield sites (over 50,000 sq ft) in communities with under 30,000 residents. The bill also establishes a nuisance property fund providing up to $500,000 in forgivable loans to cities for remediation of large abandoned buildings (50,000+ sq ft), with 25% forgiveness upon meeting specific cleanup or reuse goals like repurposing for housing or parks. Additionally, it expands community funding to include cities of 5,000-30,000 residents, offering up to $10 per square foot for waste abatement, recycling, and hazardous material removal from abandoned buildings.

Maddy summarySF 48 requires hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and pregnancy resource centers in Iowa to report specific serious medical incidents to the state Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing within 15 working days. Facilities must report events like wrong-site surgery, medication errors, patient disappearances, falls, device failures, or serious injuries from contaminated products. The law specifies 15 distinct incident types that qualify as "serious reportable events," excluding certain situations like emergencies requiring immediate action. Reports must not include identifying details about patients, staff, or healthcare professionals. Failure to report could result in penalties established under the bill.

Maddy summaryThis bill (SF 320) creates a new capital murder offense in Iowa for intentionally killing a peace officer while the officer is on duty. It establishes the death penalty as the mandatory punishment for this specific crime, directly affecting individuals charged with such murders and requiring specialized legal representation for indigent defendants in these cases. Key provisions include mandating qualified attorneys for capital murder cases, creating a new process to assess an inmate's sanity before execution, and requiring automatic Supreme Court review of all death sentences to ensure they are legally imposed and not excessive. The bill also amends existing laws to clarify the circumstances that qualify as capital murder, including killings of officers "under any circumstances" with knowledge of their status.

Maddy summarySF 325 prohibits county attorneys in Iowa from engaging in certain legal activities that create conflicts of interest, directly affecting county attorneys, county boards of supervisors, and county sheriffs. The bill bans county attorneys from accepting fees for prosecution-related work, representing other parties in cases involving similar facts to ongoing county cases, or jointly representing the county and other officials when conflicts exist. It also establishes procedures allowing county boards to hire outside lawyers to resolve disputes with county attorneys or determine if conflicts exist, and permits county sheriffs to petition courts for conflict determinations if boards refuse to act. All court costs for such disputes must be paid by the county.

Maddy summarySJR 6 is a constitutional amendment proposing to repeal Iowa’s natural resources and outdoor recreation trust fund (which funded parks, trails, and conservation) and replace it with a new property tax relief trust fund. The amendment would dedicate a portion of increased sales and use tax revenue (capped at 0.375% of taxable sales) to lower school district property tax levies uniformly across the state. This fund would replace revenue previously generated from the foundation property tax levy, directly reducing property taxes for homeowners and businesses that fund public schools. As a constitutional amendment, it requires voter approval after legislative passage.

Maddy summarySF 322 requires all public Iowa colleges and universities offering bachelor's degrees to mandate a 3-credit survey course in American history and civil government for graduation, beginning in the 2027 academic year. The course must cover specific content like the U.S. Constitution, founding documents (including the Declaration of Independence and Federalist Papers), key Supreme Court cases, and the historical development of U.S. government. It must fulfill general education social science requirements and cannot be repeated if a student transfers to another public Iowa institution. This bill directly affects all undergraduate students at public Iowa higher education institutions seeking bachelor's degrees.