South Iowa News

The Ottumwa City Council met on March 21 and held a public hearing on their fiscal year 2024 maximum tax levy dollars, and ultimately voted for it.

The hearing is later than usual, as the state’s changes to the rollback amount also pushed back their tax levy deadline to April 30. City Administrator Philip Rath explained that the council had previously approved a maximum tax amount in early February before the state’s actions to change the legislature decreased the city’s valuation by $17 million.

“And I think that it would be important to remind the public that Ottumwa obviously is not alone in this,” said Trustee Marc Roe. “Two major cities in the state of Iowa, and I'm assuming at this point, because the last time I looked was about a week and a half ago, the city of Ames and the city of Iowa City, both of which you hadn't raised property taxes. As a matter of fact, both cities have lowered their property tax rates over the past several years. They have had to come back to the board and adjust their property tax rates up as a direct result of this. I think Ames is looking at a $778,000 deficit as a result of this action. So, Ottumwa was most definitely not alone in this. And I would encourage everybody, again, much as we have over the last couple of meetings, this should be somewhat infuriating to all of the property tax holders in the state of Iowa. And I would suggest that everybody reach out to their state legislators to talk about this because again, as was mentioned in the last meeting, this was not something that the state of Iowa offered to work with the cities, counties and school districts with and, you know, stretch out the state a mistake over some time to give cities and counties and school districts time to adjust.”

The previous levy rate was proposed in February and the city council is now looking at adjustments to ensure all their regular service. There was a proposed 23 cent increase to $17.34, bringing the final ceiling number to $22.01539 after the debt service levy rolls in. Last year the city had a maximum levy rate of $16.65 which ended up being $21.22 after the debt service was factored in. This is within a 2% increase of the levy from last year.

The council is looking at ways to make budget cuts to keep costs as low as possible, but without the change the city wouldn’t be able to pay all their employees’ salaries and insurance packets. They also want to ensure that they can keep up their debt service payments.

The city council made it clear to the community that they aren’t happy with the actions of the state, especially the lack of warning and time for major change.

The council approved the changed maximum, and they will continue to hold public hearings until they submit their final budget.