Due to a change in state law, Des Moines County taxpayers will receive a 20-cent decrease in their property tax levies.
The county’s levy rate dropped from $7.02 per $1,000 taxable property value in Fiscal Year 2022 to $6.82 per $1,000 taxable property value for FY23 while still balancing out the need to pay county employee salaries,
“That’s the lowest urban levy rate in 19 years,” said county Supervisor Tom Broeker, reading from a prepared statement.
When the state took over funding mental health services, the county was no longer able to charge any money on its mental health levy. This tax equated to about 46 cents per $1,000 taxable property value for mental health services to meet the funding requirement set forth by the state.
In Iowa, cities, counties and school districts are required to charge different fiscal items to different budgets. This means one levy can increase and another decrease independently of the change in the levy.
By opting for a decrease of 26 cents instead of 46 cents, and moving the resulting 20 cents in the levy into the general supplemental levy, the Supervisors had an extra $350,000 to work with while still lowering taxes, which offset the county’s 1.5% decrease in property valuations.
The tax levy for rural residents will be down to $10.43 as a result of the decrease in the levy for all residents.
The Supervisors decreased funding to Des Moines County Conservation from $744,000 to $619,000 and used $300,000 out of the ending fund balance to make up the difference.
The increases in the budget were mostly due to increased labor costs.
Conservation budget changes
The biggest change in the conservation department’s budget is the move operating out of the reserve fund instead of the general fund. Previously, the only source of revenue for the conservation reserve account came from revenues from parks other than Big Hollow. However, the account will now have money out of general basic transferred in as revenue.
Of the $600,000 that was given to conservation, $414,000 will be transferred to general basic. The remainder of conservation’s money will go to employee benefits.
When joining the funds that already went into the conservation fund with the money from general services, this amounts to $626,000 of total revenue for the conservation department, $100,000 less than it received in FY22.
Some of the decreases in cost are minor, most less than $2,000 coming from non-park-related administrative functions. However, the biggest chunk of the money will come out of parks. According to a comparison of the FY22 and the FY23 budgets across all Des Moines County parks, $63,000, or about two-thirds of the loss, will be taken out of funds for the administration of parks.