(Spirit Lake)– Meeting in special session last (Wed.) evening, the Spirit Lake City Council set February 11th as the date for a public hearing that represents a new level of the budgeting process by cities and counties based on action taken last session by the Iowa Legislature. City Attorney/Administrator Gregg Owens tells KUOO news it pertains to the maximum amount of property tax dollars a governmental entity could POSSIBLY levy…
“I don’t know if this is the term that I would want to hear as a taxpayer, but this is the way the Legislature has set it up, is what the worse case scenario could be for your property taxes. In other words, after the public hearing on the max levy they’ll know it won’t be any more than X. And that number typically is going to show up a little higher because it’s an estimate and the maximum of what you would expect to levy, and so I just think it’s important for the citizens of Spirit Lake to understand that the budget that we’re working on still, does not anticipate that the property tax levy in Spirit Lake is going to go up, even a little bit.”
Owens adds that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year reflects a pretty major project that will be going on…
“We have gone through all of the various departments and what we expect to have for capital projects and needs in particular. The most significant project in terms of projects that people will notice here is we’ll be able to start on the Erie Avenue project this spring and into the summer and fall. Folks may remember that we’ve actually been putting money in a fund aside, or putting money aside in a fund, for the last several years and we’ll be paying cash for that project instead of borrowing.”
Owens says the council will continue to identify some other potential projects as the budget process proceeds further.
