MASON CITY – At a work session held Monday night at City Hall where no formal action was taken, the Mason City council agreed in principle to seek an election to be held on March 7 for a Capital Improvement levy.
The entire council and mayor are strongly in favor of the proposal, it was evident during the work session. What was not easily agreed upon was a date for the election for the new levy, which would be set at 67 cents per $1,000 of property valuation. Only Marshalltown uses this Capital improvement levy, along with all other towns in Iowa under 10,000 in population, it was said during the meeting. The dollars collected would not be useful until the budget until the 2019-2020 budget. If approved, the levy could save taxpayers thousands of dollars in bonding and interest costs, with the possibility of lowering the general levy later.
“This financial mechanism would set this city up for success for many many years,” city administrator Brent Trout said during the work session.
City finance director Kevin Jacobson told NIT Tuesday that “the language for what it (the money collected in the levy) is to be used for would be in the vote. It is for CAPITAL only. The intent would be to use in the 19-20 (budget), unless Debt Service drops more than I have projected. If we were to see a .15 or greater drop in levy, I would probably ask for some of that as CIL in 18-19 (budget). All depends on where things (go) next year.”
The council struggled to agree on the date to hold the referendum. Three council members and Mayor Eric Bookmeyer sought a March 7 date, while three others thought a May 2 date would be more appropriate so that the public could be fully briefed on the proposal. Due to trust issues between the public and city hall elected officials, councilman John Lee wanted to extend to the May 2 election date to make the public comfortable with the proposal. Councilman Bill Schickel said “It takes 30 days to put a decent campaign together, my goodness.” Mayor Eric Bookmeyer complained that waiting until May 2 for the election on the Capital Improvement levy would distract city hall staff from preparing for another looming referendum – on bonding for a multi-use / ice arena.
After much discussion, the council agreed on the March 7 election date. To succeed, the item must get 50% +1 of the ballots.
The city should get NO new tax money until this dumb ice arena idea is behind us. Get some real growth ideas, instead of these stupid, narrow reward projects they keep coming up with. Maybe some decent job ideas, that would attract decent people. Then we can start asking the townsfolk for more money.
Simply use the Local Option Sales Tax for streets, infrastructure, etc, that it was meant for, instead of all these stupid projects and you wouldn’t need to increase taxes. Oh yeah, and DON’T give Younkers $250,000 or waste $450,000 on hockey rink planning to date!!!
Talk to your councilman and get a explanation. You just might change your mind. I did.
How about we add an option to that March 7 vote! How about a 10 year moratorium on tax levy votes. Then here’s a quaint idea, find a developer to spend their money on this project! Instead of putting the rink in the mall where there is limited parking, put in the old Kmart building where there’s greater parking area, multiple motels and eateries real close by. Probably still have room for your greatly needed (sic) convention center in there too! Leave the taxpayer alone!
I had the same though months ago. Guess it would be too easy to do it.
This tax levy discussed here has absolutely nothing to do with the multipurpose arena. This is to fund municipal capital improvements, i.e. Streets, sewer, municipal buildings.
Actually, it’s to fund capital items that are now funded with bonds but that have a useful life that is much shorter than the bonds. That includes things like lawn mowers and trucks. Right now the city is taking on 20 year debt to pay for things that have a 10 year life span and the taxpayers are paying interest on this debt.
Do you really think there is a shortage of parking at Southbridge?!?! There is a sea of surface parking to the south of the mall and Endless street parking. Plus, I’d rather eat at one of the local joints downtown than eat the microwave dinners they serve at the ApplebeeMcFridays out west.
Here’s an old railroad executive speaking. This merger will be a vehicle to your success. 2 years later I got in my vehicle but I did not have enough gas money to buy the gas to get home. Do your math and tell them to hit the road – PS – I watched the obamma momma farewell concoction last nite. IT BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES ! – I AM SO FKN HAPPY THAT POS is hitting the road – he lied when he said he kicked the can down the road – coke a cola makes you a dreamer.
CUT expenses! – ever heard of that! – NO ! easier to raise taxes – worthless city government that cripples the lower class private sector and small business. Liberal BS – This year California will go down the tubes – 2 BILLION dollar shortfall and 1/2 the state will lose federal funding because of the sanctuary cities and counties. TOO BAD your liberal state is in the toilet – Run by a bunch of liberal bafoons.
The city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on surveying and engineering on the mayors wet dream before it fell through (as we knew it would). Now they don’t have money to buy equipment? What is wrong with this picture?
someone has to pay to ice skate!!! another hidden fund
But could save us money in the long run. HA
Where do they get their figures? In the Globe article it used a $100,000 home for example, paying $700 a year in property taxes. WHAT?! My house is valued at $135,000 and I pay over $2,200 a year for p. taxes. Deception AGAIN!
In 2008 my property tax was $1600 and my house was assessed at 132k. Now, 2016 and still only valued at 135k and the property tax is almost $2600. As soon as my house has the county assesment done it will more than likely be valued around 160k due to updates, and add ons since my last assesment. So my question is this, how much can you squeeze out of the citizens before they decide the tax gauging isnt worth staying in the area? If my property taxes end up over 3k a year like i assume they will, i dont think ill be staying in this area too much longer. I understand that everything costs money, and a good chunk of my tax is due to the black top resurfacing that was done a few years back.
With my current tax rate, and assessed value it would take 52 years for me to pay the equivalent of my houses value in taxes. Seems like a good chunk of money when you really look at the big picture. Especially since a lot of people take out 30 year loans to purchase their homes. I knew this was going to happen though. Ever since they started having properties reassessed in town, i had a feeling it was going to be followed by a tax hike.
Your property tax bill includes taxes from other government entities including the county and the school district. They are talking about the city portion of the taxes not the whole bill. The city can’t control what the other taxing entities doe.
Here we go again….. The bullies win…
Hurray! More taxes!