The Iowa Legislature is discussing limitations on the max property tax levy and it is causing some distress among county governments. The Senate measure will force the county to recalculate valuations on properties. The action may reduce incoming tax dollars to the counties. For counties such as Winnebago County which has just passed an increase to pay for emergency medical services, this may require an additional tightening of the belt.
Worth County officials are also concerned about the measure which is now on the Governor’s desk for signature. Worth County Auditor Jacki Backhaus told the Worth County Supervisors that cuts may be inevitable.
Supervisors were concerned about the timing of the legislation. Supervisor Enos Loberg expressed deep concern about how little time there would be to submit budgets to the state.
Legislators have realized that the timing of the legislation is forcing county governments to hastily compute valuations and generate budgets that normally take over a month to compute. As a result, the state is providing an extension until April 30th to certify and submit county budgets.
Backhaus expressed concern about how the state is trying to make changes on work that is virtually done for this year.
Loberg expressed concern about how the state is trying to make changes on work that is virtually done for this year.
Worth County officials are waiting to see what will happen before taking any official actions on the proposed budget.
