Josh Turek, the Democrat who’s running for the U.S. Senate, says he’d like to see lawmakers consider a temporary suspension of Iowa’s fuel taxes when the state legislature convenes Friday in a special session.
Turek, a member of the Iowa House, said he “would love to be able to provide some level of financial assistance to Iowans right now because everywhere I’m going and particularly to farmers right now as they’re going into harvest time, folks are really struggling with gas prices and diesel prices.”
The centerpiece of Friday’s special session is a bill to provide significant tax credits for a company that plans to build a steel mill in southeast Iowa. Turek told reporters the director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority briefed him and other Democrats in the legislature this morning about “the basics,” but questions remain.
“Is eminent domain going to be used in this process? Are we going to have guardrails to ensure that these tax breaks, that’re only going to come on the back side after all the requirements have been fulfilled? So a lot to discuss still,” Turek said, “and excited to get up there on Friday, but certainly love the idea of manufacturing coming back here to Iowa and 1700 jobs. Certainly in favor of that.”
Turek voted for the state’s Major Economic Growth Attraction (MEGA) program when it was created in 2024 to award a 5% tax credit to companies making a capital investment of at least a billion dollars in an Iowa facility. Governor Reynolds is recommending that that be raised to 10% on the $15 billion dollar steel mill project.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got guardrails in place on it to ensure that they’re going to provide everything that they say they’re going to do before these tax credits could go forward, but we need manufacturing jobs. We need job growth and so I like the idea,” Turek said after a campaign event in Des Moines, “but again the devil’s in the details. I’ve got to see what this final product is and then see what kind of amendments we’re going to put forth to address it.”
Turek suggested that since the legislation deals with tax policy, there may be a way to add on a temporary suspension of the 30-cent-per-gallon state tax on regular gasoline and the state’s 32.5 cents-per-gallon tax on diesel. “This is just something that I’m kicking around now, but I think we need temporary relief. We’ll see what they’re up for. As you know, you never get everything that you’re wanting in the legislature, but maybe something like three months, six months,” Turek said. “We’ll see.”
Both Turek and his Republican opponent Ashley Hinson have called for the federal tax on gas and diesel to be temporarily suspended. Hinson, a congresswoman who represent Iowa’s second district, last week said the U.S. House should reconvene immediately to take action.
