Floyd County supervisors still working to avoid property tax jumps

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

County property taxes in Floyd County could increase in the next fiscal year by as much as 12.6% for people living in the cities and 12.3% for people living in rural areas.

The actual potential amount of county property taxes collected, for General Service, Debt Service and Rural Services, would only increase by 3.19%.

That is the most the county could collect according to a document approved at Monday morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The purpose of the discussion was setting a public hearing on the proposed tax levy amounts, for 8:30 a.m. Monday, March 24.

The hearing is required by Iowa law.

However, the supervisors made tentative decisions at the same meeting that would lower that levy amount somewhat, and they could make other changes to lower it further.

The tax increases in the current version of the General Services budget (paid by all property owners in the county) are because of several factors, including employee wage and benefits increases including insurance cost increases, adding a full-time jailer, adding a pert-time dispatcher, transferring additional funds to the Emergency Management Agency, and increases to the general assistance fund.

Not all of those changes may make it to the final budget.

In the rural areas the primary reasons for the increase are increased costs for wages and contributions to the Iowa Public Employee Retirement System (IPERS).

The topic of wages for county employees has generated budget discussion among the three supervisors for weeks.

The board earlier approved a new contract with the union members in the Secondary Roads Department with a 2.75% increase, and that was supposed to be used as the base level for other department salary increases. But several other departments have requested increases for various staff members significantly above that rate, ranging as high as almost 23%.

Supervisors are discussing how much those should be scaled back.

The sheriff has also asked for one more jailer, and the Dispatch Department is seeking another half-time dispatcher.

Supervisor Gloria Carr expressed concern about the county’s options if future years don’t have significant valuation increases.

“​​If we don’t have that growth, where are increases going to come from next year?” she asked.

Talking about some reductions in pay increases, Supervisor Boyd Campbell said, “Quite honestly, I tell you, the macroeconomics of the current things going down with budgets and cutting and stuff, I don’t want to get into reducing personnel, which would be something that may have to happen. I would see this as a good compromise and fiscally responsible.”

Supervisor Chair Dennis Keifer said, “I agree with you, Boyd. … I don’t want to lay people off.”

Carr said she thinks “we’re going to get a lot of noise from Secondary Roads” because they agreed to 2.75% increases for them and they’re talking about “putting in so many random increases.”

“It’s all over the board,” Campbell said.

“It’s all over and it’s going to cause a lot of animosity,” Carr said.

She also said she is concerned about the reaction to the publication that taxes could go up 12.59% or 12.28%

“We got a lot accomplished with this, but I would like to not see this as high a percentage of increases,” Carr said after discussing several possible wage spending reductions, with the other two supervisors agreeing.

“I can imagine the Coalition’s going to be here if this happens this way,” Carr said, referring to the Coalition for Better County Government that has protested tax increases and even challenged previous county budgets at the state level.

Supervisors will continue working on the budget at the meetings this month.

According to the tax levy proposal passed for the public hearing Monday morning, a city dweller in Floyd County with a home with an assessed value of $100,000 paid $294 in taxes this year. The document assumes that home will have an assessed valuation 10% higher next fiscal year, or $110,000, and based on the proposed levy that homeowner would pay a county property tax of $331, a 12.59% increase.

Rural residents who own a home assessed at $100,000 this year paid a total county tax of $456, and next year that home assessed at $110,000 would pay a tax of $512, a 12.28% increase.

Those figures include the state “rollback,” which is used by the Iowa Department of revenue to avoid large fluctuations in property tax by reducing the actual amount of value property owners pay taxes on.

In the current fiscal year the residential rollback is 46.3428%, meaning that home assessed at $100,000 taxable valuation would pay taxes on only $45,343 of value.

The residential rollback for next fiscal year is 47.4316%, meaning that $110,000 assessed home would pay taxes on only $52,175.

Anticipated increases in valuation and rollback changes are responsible for part of the possible increase in county property taxes – the assessed valuation is increasing in the model used and the rollback is increasing, resulting in a 15% increase in the value of property being taxed (from $45,343 to $52.175).

The actual county tax levy rate is only going up slightly for urban property owners, from the current levy of $6.34 per $1,000 of taxable valuation to $6.34357. That’s only a 0.06% increase.

The total rural levy listed in the proposed tax levy document is actually decreasing, from the current $9.84 per $1,000 of taxable valuation to about $9.81.

Total amount of property tax dollars that could be collected in the proposed levy document, including General Services, Debt Service and Rural Services would be $9,055,666, which is a 3.19% increase from the current $8,775,931.

Also at the meeting, the board agreed to seek proposals from companies regarding the county’s property damage and liability coverage. It has been 17 years since the county south competitive bids.