Iowa Dem used official position to secure tax breaks for client of her family-owned business, filings show

Liz Mathis, who announced on Tuesday that she was challenging freshman Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, rallied support among her fellow state senators in 2016 to secure up to $2.5 million in sales tax rebates for Prospect Meadows, an Iowa-based nonprofit that paid her husband's marketing firm tens of thousands of dollars for consulting services.

"It took a lot of hard work to get this bill to the Capitol and convince fellow legislators Prospect Meadows would be a good project for not only our area, but for the state," Mathis said after convincing several of her colleagues to reverse their votes. "People wrote off the bill to defeat, but never say never." The final approval of the $2.5 million tax rebate was given to Prospect Meadows, a complex of 17 baseball and softball fields in Marion, Iowa, in late 2018 in time for the 2019 opening ceremony, where Mathis was "credited with orchestrating strong state support for the project."  ME&V, the marketing firm that Mathis's husband, Mark Mathis, co-founded in 1996, received $94,298 in tax year 2012 and $54,588 in tax year 2013 from Prospect Meadows for "production of promotion materials and consulting," according to tax filings reviewed by Fox News. On the Iowa Senate Statement of Economic Interests disclosure form, Mathis lists herself as the "co-owner" of ME&V in 2012 and labels it as a "family owned business" in 2013. On LinkedIn, she calls herself a "Family Owner" of the AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising.