City Council - Regular Meeting

Resolution #030326-01 –Set date for Public Hearing: Proposed Property Tax Levy for 03/24/26 at 5:30pm

Due to a new change beginning in 2024, the State of Iowa requires cities to hold two hearings on the annual budget, with the first hearing dedicated to the Proposed Property Tax Levies via a special meeting. In addition, the proposed property tax hearing also requires a notice to be mailed directly to each taxpayer on March 20th each year by the County. The mailer will show the hearing time, date and location of the proposed property tax hearings for the city, county and K-12 school district. Cities in Iowa must have a second public hearing prior to adopting their final budget by resolution, per Code of Iowa section 384.16. The public hearing on adopting the full budget must be completed and a resolution adopting the full budget must be passed before the budget can be submitted. With these changes, the date to certify City budgets has been moved to April 30th to allow time for the two public hearings and a special proposed property tax statement letter mailing to occur. This resolution sets the date for the proposed FY27 proposed property tax levy Public Hearing held at the March 24, 2026 5:30pm Special Meeting. Notice of the public hearing is to be published not more than 20 days nor less than 10 days prior to the hearing. In the interest of investing in public safety, the City elected to withdraw from DART. This budget reallocates a portion of the former transit levy ($0.61669) to a new City levy of $12.10, resulting in a combined rate that is $0.01669 lower than prior City-authorized levies. While the state-required form reflects the increase in the City levy, it does not account for the overall decrease achieved by eliminating the transit levy.