Iowa lawmakers to vote on raising tax incentive cap for a $15B steel plant

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers will return to the Statehouse Friday to consider expanding the ceiling on state tax incentives in an effort to secure a $15 billion steel plant project for the state. President Donald Trump announced the plant Monday alongside Iowa elected officials, heralding the project as a major economic and national security investment. Five weeks before the midterm elections, Republicans seized on the promise of good-paying jobs and a central role for the heartland in the push for American steel manufacturing.

It’s celebrated as an opportunity for southeast Iowa, an area along the Mississippi River that once thrived as a hub for industry but has since suffered from shuttered facilities and dwindled populations. Still, the deal and the tax abatements it could carry have also been met with some skepticism in rural Iowa and Des Moines alike. And while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the “deal is done,” state action and local officials in the days since suggest otherwise.

Kim Reynolds on Tuesday called lawmakers back for the special session, saying “reasonable and limited updates” to the state’s economic development program were needed to advance the project proposed by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota company owned by the India-based conglomerate Essar Group. While the specific location remains undisclosed, elected officials have indicated the project is set for Lee County. Still, the chair of the county board of supervisors said this week that the company has not yet committed to the project site.

Mesabi Metallics “looks forward to breaking ground in the near future,” Jesse Harris, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement Tuesday. He said the company is “optimistic” that changes to the law will be enacted based on conversations with legislators and elected officials. The White House said Thursday that the Iowa project is only possible because of the president’s policies.

“President Trump has a proven record of securing historic investments, creating high-paying jobs, and bringing manufacturing back to the United States,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement. The pivot to Iowa seems to have moved quickly Iowa state Rep.