City Council - Regular Meeting

Proposed Property Tax Levy

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 only in a special meeting. In addition, the proposed property tax hearing also requires a notice to be mailed directly to each taxpayer in March 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 had been moved to April 30th to allow time for the two public hearings and a special proposed property tax statement letter mailing to occur. 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) capacity to a new City levy of $12.10, resulting in a combined rate that is $0.01669 lower than prior year City-authorized levies. While the state-required form reflects the increase in the City levy, the document is incomplete and misleading as it is not inclusive of all levies and does not account for the overall decrease achieved by eliminating the transit levy.