Floyd County sticks with roads for local option sales tax

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

If Floyd County rural voters approve a new 10-year local option sales tax in a special election next year, the proceeds will again be dedicated to county road infrastructure, supervisors agreed at their regular meeting this week.

The board passed a resolution setting the wording for a public measure that will be voted on at a special election to be held March 1, 2022.

It will ask rural voters to decide, yes or no, whether the county should impose a 1% sales and service tax in the unincorporated area of the county, with 0% of it going toward direct property tax relief, and 100% going toward “funding Secondary Roads, including rock, bridges and culvert repair and/or replacement and construction projects in the unincorporated county.”

Two weeks ago the county board had approved a resolution of support for calling for the special election. On Tuesday afternoon the board passed a resolution officially setting the date for the vote as March 1, 2022, and setting the language for the question.

In effect, the tax would be a continuation of one that already exists, and that is already used for that same county road infrastructure purpose, but that expires at the end of next year.

In 2011, rural county voters approved the current local option sales tax (LOST) for 10 years, expiring Dec. 31, 2022. Passing the public measure in the special election next March would create an identical LOST for another 10 years, taking effect Jan. 1, 2023, and expiring Dec. 31, 2032.

The question that has come up is whether the wording needs to include the statement regarding any use of the tax for property tax relief.

Floyd County Auditor Gloria Carr said the Iowa Code says the public measure wording “shall” include the amount of the tax revenue that will be used for property tax relief.

Carr said she contacted the Iowa Secretary of State Office, and “her response was, ‘The law is a little gray in this area so I would rely on the opinion of your county attorney, but I would recommend including that 0% would be used for property tax relief.’”

The Iowa Department of Revenue website says a LOST ballot question must specify the type of tax; the tax rate (exactly 1%); the date it will be imposed; the approximate amount of local option tax revenue that will be used for property tax relief, if any; the specific purposes for which local option tax revenues will be spent if for purposes other than property tax relief; and, if the tax has a sunset provision that specifies the date on which the tax will be repealed, the date of future repeal.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said the wording about property tax relief was not included in the wording of the measure that was passed 10 years ago.

Supervisors have said that using the LOST revenue for county roads and bridges is a form of property tax relief, because without that revenue the county would either have to use property tax revenue to construct and maintain county roads and bridges, or would have to significantly reduce the amount of service provided in that area.

Tjaden said the supervisors can’t legally advise voters which way to vote, but they can inform them about what the revenue is used for and what changes would have to be made without that revenue.

Supervisor Roy Scheickerath said a big part of that educational effort would be showing people what the revenue has been used for in the past 10 years.

In fiscal year 2019-20, Floyd County received more than $774,000 in LOST revenue. The year before, in fiscal year 2018-19, it received almost $656,000.

Supervisors have also emphasized that this is not a new tax, but a continuation of an identical tax that is already in place.

In 2010, when Floyd County asked voters to pass the 1% LOST for county roads and bridges and “any other lawful purpose,” the voters turned down the measure. Many people speculated the measure failed because it didn’t specifically limit the revenue use.

In 2011 the rural county residents again voted on a LOST public measure, this time limiting the use of the revenue to bridge and road construction and repair, similar to the current proposed wording, and the measure passed.

Charles City’s LOST is also expiring at the end of next year, and city voters will also take part in a special election on March 1.

The City Council at its workshop meeting Wednesday night again discussed possible uses for the LOST revenue if the tax is passed for another 10 years. While council members can’t take action at a work session, the majority appeared to favor using most of the LOST revenue for street projects, as is is currently used, but also allowing up to 10% of the revenue to be used for public safety such as the Police Department or the AMR ambulance contract.

The city currently gets about $900,000 annually in LOST revenue.

Also at the supervisors regular meeting Tuesday afternoon, the board:

• Decided that the county solid waste collection site will be open Saturday, Nov. 27, after Thanksgiving, at its usual open hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The site will be closed on Thanksgiving and the Friday after as county holidays.

• Took no action on a request by Roger and Tamara Sutton to abate a portion of property taxes on a parcel of their property that had been improperly listed in county records with more acres than it actually had.

After researching the question, Assistant County Attorney Randall TIlton advised the board that two different Iowa Attorney General opinions had ruled that a board of supervisors cannot abate property taxes claimed to be erroneously paid “unless the tax payer has first pursued his remedies of appealing to the Board of Review and if not successful, appealing to the Property Assessment Appeals Board or District Court.”

Sutton had not appealed his valuation after previously receiving incorrect statements, saying he had then been unaware of the error.

• Agreed on the job posting and job description to advertise for a new county engineer. Applications are due Dec. 6.

• Set 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28, for a county budget amendment public hearing.