(Des Moines)– Some difficult decisions lie ahead for cities and counties on the heels of action taken by the Iowa Senate early Friday cutting 70 million dollars in property tax replacement funds to local governments.
The so-called “government reinvention bill” passed early Friday just before the Senate adjourned for the week at 2:50 a.m.
Cities are especially hard hit…losing nearly 746-thousand dollars.
According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, Spencer will lose nearly 219-thousand dollars; Estherville 130-thousand; Emmetsburg 80-thousand; and Spirit Lake will lose 75-thousand dollars in state funding.
Other Dickinson county cities and how they’re affected include Milford, which will lose almost 37-thousand dollars; Okoboji, 18-thousand; Arnolds Park, 21-thousand; Wahpeton will lose nearly five thousand dollars in state funding; Terril, six thousand; Superior, two thousand; Lake Park almost 17-thousand dollars; and West Okoboji, which will see a state funding reduction of slightly more than four thousand dollars in the upcoming fiscal year.
City officials say they’ll have to make up the cuts by dipping into reserve funds, reducing services, by cutting personnel or increasing property taxes in future budget years.
