(Spirit Lake)– Meeting in special session today (Monday) with representatives of the Terril and Harris-Lake Park school boards, the Spirit Lake school board voted unanimously to request a special election be held to extend the local option sales tax for schools an additional 10 years. The current tax expires in 2010. The extension would continue it to 2020. While that seems a long way out there, Spirit Lake Superintendent Tim Grieves says it’s vital a special election to extend the tax be held soon to try to supercede a bill in the legislature that would make it statewide. A provision in that legislation would require schools where the tax is already in affect to schedule elections by April 1st.
Under Iowa Code, atleast one more Dickinson county school board needs to adopt a resolution calling for a special election on the tax extension. Approval is needed from school boards representing atleast 50 percent of the county’s students. Either Terril or Harris-Lake Park would be enough to surpass that. They’ll discuss the matter at their meetings tonight (Monday). The Okoboji school board discussed it in a special meeting today (Monday) but Superintendent Quentin Reifenrath says no action was taken. He says the board wants more time to review it and to try to get an indication on what direction the legislature might take.
