Cody’s Reaction: Gov. Reynolds’ Condition of the State

*Key takeaways are underlined for faster reading*

Since I launched this campaign last year, I have been critical of what our state government has been focused on and how that differs from what Iowans in Iowa House District 33 are grappling with. From poor water quality that threatens our health, to skyrocketing cancer rates, and the affordability of childcare, housing, and utilities, our leaders have seemingly been more interested in gutting civil rights protections and defunding our public schools than addressing real challenges. 

Tonight, I watched Gov. Reynolds’ Condition of the State address that ceremoniously kicks off the start of the 2026 Iowa legislative session. As I have done for many of these addresses, I listened intently–groaning at times and shaking my head in cautious agreement at others.

As someone running to represent Iowans in the Iowa House of Representatives, I believe I owe it to my community–my potential constituents–to share my key takeaways from the speech tonight–the good, the bad, and the ugly. In an expanding primary, you deserve candidates of substance who have the experience to deliver results and communicate complicated issues in a way that makes sense. So, here’s my best attempt at that for your review.

Let me start with what I think were the glaring omissions from the speech before I dive into the individual sections.

WHAT WAS MISSING

The most obvious exclusion in the whole speech was the fact the governor never uttered the words, “water quality.” She could have mentioned it in the cancer section as part of the University of Iowa cancer study, or she could have addressed it separately and laid out her plans to address this crucial threat to the health of Iowans. Instead, likely as a nod to powerful agribusinesses that hold considerable influence in our state, she chose not to address it at all despite the increasing and reasonable concerns being voiced by Iowans across the state. This is a failure of leadership and is evidence that in their 10+ years of one-party control, Iowa Republicans think they can ignore this universally-shared concern.

Another word she never uttered? Affordability. Iowans are facing some of the lowest wage growth of any state in the country while groceries, credit card interest, and the cost of housing are all on the rise. Our $7.25/hour minimum wage turned 18 years old this month, and the governor made no mention of how Iowa is the last of any state that touches our borders to make any attempt at raising it. No Iowan can afford rent, education, health care, or utilities on $290 a week before taxes. Our community deserves a leader in the Iowa Legislature who knows what it’s like to live paycheck-to-paycheck, who has lived through losing a home, and who has struggled to put food on the table–it’s critical at moments like these when our issues are swept under the rug. 

A few other notable omissions? The cost of child care and the growing cost of utility bills were never mentioned.

Here’s a look at some of the other takeaways I had by topic.

PROPERTY TAX REFORM

What I Liked

As I’ve been calling voters in our district and meeting them at their doors, at neighborhood association meetings, and through social media, the issue of affordable housing comes up very often. From the ever-increasing property taxes for seniors on a fixed income to local real estate developers competing with out-of-state private equity firms to purchase dilapidated or tax delinquent properties to redevelop, this issue is consistently top-of-mind. We owe it to every Iowan to have a safe, secure, and affordable place to lay their head down at night and to tuck in their children. 

This is why I liked the governor’s idea to cap property taxes for Iowans 65 years old and above if they live in a home that’s worth $350,000 or less. Our seniors on a fixed income are often hit hardest by inflation, rising grocery prices, growing utility bills, and soaring healthcare expenses. We can act to stabilize this consistent threat to their financial security, and because we can, I think we absolutely should protect them from rising property taxes. If you’ve owned and lived in your home for 40 years and your mortgage has been paid for the last 10, I think we can look elsewhere for funding. 

I am also 100% supportive of efforts to support first-time homebuyers through the governor’s approach of establishing tax-deductible savings accounts. While I would prefer this effort to be a refundable tax credit for first time homebuyers who make under $100,000 a year that would help them cover the down payment on their first home, this savings account solution offers a tax-free path to that goal, even if slower. We shouldn’t have to pay taxes on money we’re saving to buy our first home. This will help many young families get a start.

What I Didn’t Like

To be clear, these two nuggets were just about the only long-term property tax fixes I liked of the governor’s proposals. I have real issues with people in power telling Iowans that the solution to their property tax burden is simply to consolidate critical and life-sustaining services, like highway maintenance, waste management, stormwater management, emergency services, and health care. Anyone who has traveled our state in the past 10 years knows that the long-term decay and underfunding of these services at the local level–largely due to the tax policy of Iowa Republicans over the past 10 years–is the cause of many of our problems, not the solution. 

I found it really rich to hear the governor touting consolidating these services as a solution as she celebrated a millionaire agribusiness executive paying the same income tax rate as a public school teacher at East High School or a nurse at Unity Point. This was a real let-them-eat-cake moment.

CANCER PREVENTION

As a reminder, Iowa has the fastest-rising cancer rates in the U.S. and the second-highest rates of any state in the union. I think it’s important to note that, in her speech, the governor largely cited two examples of her work to fight Iowa’s cancer crisis: the Rural Health Transformation Fund and the previously-funded study by the University of Iowa the legislature allocated $1 million to last year. 

What I Liked 

My favorite part of this section was that it was included and a central focus in the speech–I’ll give the governor and her staff credit for doing that. I appreciated this critical issue getting the focus and deliberation it deserves as it touches every family. I also enjoyed the governor’s focus on early screening and prevention as a key strategy for combating Iowa’s cancer crisis–she was right to cite this as a key way to increase survivability and reduce the tragic loss of life. The $50 million dedicated to this from the Rural Health Transformation Fund (RHTF) will be interesting to see and I hope that the legislative committees–like the Federal and Other Funds Appropriations Subcommittee and the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittees–will hold them accountable for doing this. 

I also appreciated the governor giving a shout out to mitigating radon, the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers in Iowa, which is included in the RHTF.

What I Didn’t Like

In all, the rest of the cancer section was interesting to hear and I appreciated some of the ideas around consolidated service delivery to streamline care, but these details will ultimately be decided by the contractors and subcontractors chosen by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. Given that this same language has been used to gut and privatize Medicaid, and defund our public schools, I won’t place a lot of faith in these promises until we can evaluate them for ourselves. 

I’m also concerned that these funds were given as a compromise to help keep rural hospitals open–does that leave communities like ours without opportunities to access cancer prevention funding? That question was not answered, and there was no attention to the fact that Black and Indigenous Iowans are at much greater risk for cancer than their white counterparts.

She also failed to acknowledge in any way that water quality, environmental pollution, pesticides, or any other pollutant that makes Iowa an outlier could be among the key risk factors driving Iowa’s cancer crisis. Rest assured, though, that she was still quick to name behavioral factors like obesity.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

This section felt like the least forward-looking or current in the speech, with the governor revisiting some of her same old greatest hits, using language like “streamline” and “choice.” I think what the state has done to the long-term stability of our public schools and their ability to deliver high-quality education to Iowa’s children is a travesty to put it lightly. The waiver from the Department of Education seems like it may add some flexibility to our state’s ability to spend federal education money, but based on recent history, I’m sure it will be selectively allocated to further the governor’s ideological preference around school choice instead of supporting students. So, I’ll keep this part brief.

What I Liked
I like that we gave our public school teachers a pay bump last year, even if it’s still nowhere near enough to reflect their value to our state.

What I Didn’t Like

The rest of it. 

CONCLUSION

Iowans deserve to live in a state that we can be proud of, and that’s the type of leadership I’m running to offer. If you share the vision of a state that has water we can drink without worrying about its safety, a state that invests in working families, and a state that looks out for every Iowan, I hope I can earn your vote in the June 2nd democratic primary. This won’t be an easy fight, but it’s a fight worth having. 

You can watch the full speech for yourself on the governor’s Facebook Page if you’d like. Let me know what stood out to you!