Legislation dealing with how wetland is taxed is making its way through committees in the Iowa Senate. Senator for District 42, Rich Taylor, says the bill would make it so all counties tax wetlands as wetland. He explains with the current setup, some counties tax it as farm or productive land, making the federal wetland programs less practical for farmers.

Taylor says when that land is taxed as farmland, the reimbursement from the wetland programs barely cover the cost of maintaining it.  The bill could be put up for debate in the Senate sometime in the next few weeks.

The purpose of the federal wetland programs is to reduce erosion and keep silt out of rivers and streams by encouraging farmers to not farm bottomland.