MASON CITY – NIACC is seeking to raise property taxes for campus upgrades.
According to information from North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), located in Mason City, “the cost is 85 cents per month for a (property) assessed at $100,000 in property tax. For less than a cup of coffee a month, NIACC will expand job training, open new student career centers…all with the goal of training our next generation and providing local employers with the skilled workforce they need.”
The tax on all forms of property (houses, businesses, farmland), if it passes, would be for 10 years. The vote has to receive 60% approval as a cumulative number (all votes combined) from across the community college district, which covers part of 11 counties in the region.
NIACC claims the tax increase on property owners will:
- Support the creation of Regional Career Centers to support increased workforce training needs.
- Expand workforce training for in-demand, STEM-related careers, including healthcare.
- Provide needed upgrades to classroom technology.
- Renovate the North Iowa Community Auditorium, which receives over 57,000 visitors annually
- Enhance campus safety through additional lighting and security.
- Invest in sustainable energy sources that will generate long term savings by replacing expensive mechanical systems.
The election is scheduled for March 3, 2020.
Cut some salaries. Cut some dead weight teachers. Streamline some departments. Then figure out how much money they really need. Do all that, they could probably lower tuition.
Maybe NIACC wouldn’t need the increase in taxes if they did away with one of their perks, such as allowing family members of the NIACC staff attend for free.
Funny how ALL these States that have the Lotto…Boats & Gambling CLAIMED They’d have ALL this NEW Money for Schools …DON’T! …How Taxes for Schools continue to Rise each & every Year…AMAZING They dont DO anything to the People WHO Deverted or spent that Money on other things…Just Keep Electing them…ENJOY Dumb Asses.
Soon, all education will be free!!!
After reading this article, it’s easy to see where this writer stands. As usual, Matt feeds the common anti-establishment part of the public. It’s too bad he doesn’t do any real journalistic investigating to verify his stand. And really, the job of any news organization should be to give both sides of an argument. Too bad he never took the class in journalistic ethics. By the, did Matt ever take any journalistic classes at all???
He does as good a job as ABC,NSC,CBS……
This is ridiculous! Niacc has always been tuition based entity, as well as other colleges. Why do they need to put a tax on homeowners and others of the community for their funding? Raise your tuition! The people need to see all the facts, looks like another attempt to push something through.
Dear lord this site finds the dumbest of the dumb. Public colleges and universities are all subsidized by the tax payer as tuition only covers a PORTION of the cost of furnishing the education. Most growing, progressive cities understand investment s in education pay dividends towards economic development and quality of life enhancement.
This person sounds like a know it all. Look at the facts of this bond. The majority of any college is funded by the tuition. Some are also funded through other tax dollars. Mason City residents are currently being taxed and NIACC is seeking a higher amount on Tuesdays vote. Who ever you are, If you think this area including Mason City is a progressive community, you are in the dark! Speaking of DUMB! get your head out of your ass!
Totally false. Public colleges and universities are funded more heavily by our taxes than tuition. ALL public colleges and universities are funded by our tax dollars. This is because progressive folks recognize the benefits of offering affordable higher education.
We agree, Mason City is not progressive.
Not Totally False. Look at what you paid last year personally tax wise toward Niacc, which is 2.186 total or a little over 2 ml for the area. Now look at the tuition. Not only is this area not progressive, but full of people like you that talk out of there ass. You can not argue with figures!
Buddy, it is totally false. Public colleges and universities are mostly paid for by our tax dollars. That’s why they’re friggin called PUBLIC colleges and universities. Why do you think there is a resident and non-resident tuition schedule?!?!?!?!?
The primary sources for funding for community colleges are state funding, tuition revenue secondly, and local property tax. So I would agree tuition is the primary bases besides state funding. I don’t agree that it is compared to a cup of coffee price for the increased. This is a huge bond that is being proposed for the area and needs examined and explained better.
You do realize the ‘state funding’ is tax dollars, correct? All PUBLIC colleges and universities are largely paid for with our tax dollars. Tuition only covers a portion of their operating costs.
Omg. That is what was just said earlier! Lol. Regardless of the percentages of who funds how many dollars toward NIACC’s operating costs, the question is Do we want to increase our taxes in the North Iowa Area on Tuesday and help?
Has anybody compared niacc to other community colleges for their tax rate?
Of Iowa’s 15 Community Colleges, the property tax levy for NIACC is the second LOWEST in the state. Only DMACC is lower.
that’s good we plan on moving to the Ankeny area
A-ha-ha! You think property taxes are less in Ankeny?!?! I’d prepare for your tax bill to double compared to Mason City.
That auditorium should not only be self-supporting, it should have been making a ton of money all this time, before there was another auditorium in town. If they had ever had anybody with talent booking and event venue management expertise, it would have been hugely profitable, but they keep having clueless secretaries run things. We shouldn’t have to pay for their continuing screwups. Vote NO.
Why isn’t this article labeled as an opinion? It certainly isn’t unbiased.
why didnt your mom swallow?
Why did your mom throw up when she saw what came out of her bagina?
Cuz it was you.
Wait a minute!? They hired a company out of this area? Doesn’t NIACC have classes on building websites where one of its graduates could of been hired to do this? Why isn’t NIACC supporting its local businesses or graduates?
Good point. NIACC must train some really crappy web designers and the school doesn’t even trust their own web design students to build a decent website that is really basic with just words and pictures on it. If they are willing to blow your tax $$$ on hiring a web design co from across the state rather thaan do it in-house which it could have easily been done (except their students are not up to the challenge, clearly) then you think they won’t squander 10 years of this accelerated tax grab? VOTE NO.
I never thought of that. But you are right. NIACC is training some real nitwits in the web design field if they could not build that pitiful basic web page. I bet that site cost NIACC $10,000. Wow. Just wow. I’m voting no and so is my mom and her mom.
Since they are a publicly funded institution, there is state code which mandates how they solicit and choose services. Apparently local web design was not meeting requirements of the state code
Show the public NIACCS, checking, savings, investments, holdings etc. no sale this entity NIACC is using people they are a legitimate business, yet they pay zero property tax, zero income tax etc. they want to keep people tax slaves/serfs to them, they need to keep people in debt and beholden to them – people need to break away from these vampires, people need their own $ to do as they please and surely people need to fix their own houses, business up with their own $ – they have made taxing/theft legal through laws – get rid of the vampires just say “We Do Not Consent”
So well said. My husband and I are on fixed income, can barely pay our property tax already (we cant ice skate too). We can’t afford this tax increase and will be voting no at the courthouse.
This is the dumbest post of the day. And that is saying something when you consider the halftards that frequent this site.
Good for you owning up up to being a “halftard”, your words not mine. Thats the first step to recovery of your ailment is ackknowledging your shortcomings. You know, since your here on this site. Once again your words.
It was not that many years ago that the auditorium was renovated. We now have a venue in downtown Mason City. How many auditoriums am I suppose to support?
Why is ag land taxed at 1/4 the rate of residential property? How about ag land owners pay the same tax burden as us that live in town?!?! So sick of lazy farmers not paying their share!!!!
It is a user based facility that should be financed/paid for by the users and not put on the backs of the taxpayers. When I need to do upgrades at home, and I need to now, I budget for it. I don’t ask for or expect others that have nothing to do with my home to help pay for it. Their adds for pushing this thru compare this to roughly buying a cup of coffee a month. Well I’m tired of buying everyone else a cup of coffee and there’s going to be more asking for it in the next 4 to 5 years too. Where’s my free cup of coffee?
For everyone’s information, according to my calculations based on the current NIACC tax levy, this would be a 24.5% increase on top of the current NIACC property tax assessment.
Also, it appears farm land would be assessed at about half of the residential rate (based on hole/farm land values).
Can we see your calculations?
Figure it out yourself you lazy as idiot.
What an A$$ wipe
The current NIACC tax levy in MC is 2.186%. On my home, my last tax bill for them was $166.38. Based on my latest property assessment, the proposed tax amount would be $40.80. That is a 24.5% increase.
Based on the average value of $7804/acre (ycharts.com), my assessed value is equivalent to 51 acres of land. That land will pay $12.24/year… so I stand corrected; farmland actually pays 30% of similarly valued residential property.
Thank you.
At least they have not squandered and misspent millions of dollars like MCHS.
And they are going to stick it to you for another 25. or 30 million for a swimming pool
Yes!
Nope.
Hell NO!