There was a legislative round table in Mount Pleasant at Access Energy Cooperative on Friday morning.
The topic of the day was taxes, and with State senator Adrian Dickey, Mark Lofgren, and Representative Taylor Collins, much discussion was had. Iowans for Tax Relief President, Chris Hagenow, believes that Iowans want relief from property taxes, and that they are “on the side of legislators who are taxing action to slow down out of control local government spending.”
According to Iowans for Tax Relief, Louisa County has increased property taxes collected by 16.7% for the coming fiscal year, which is the 17th highest increase across 99 counties in Iowa. Henry County has increased 1.3%, which makes it the 11th lowest.
The legislators seem to all agree that property tax bill 2.0 is in the works for the coming session, and that they will continue to try and lower property taxes across the state. Senator Dickey brought up spending and mentioned that some local government and schools are spending money on things that they shouldn’t.
Representative Collins told a story about two separate instances of knocking on a door and hearing from the people that they are considering a move because of how high the property taxes are where they live. Public safety and roads are the biggest concern to his constituents, according to Collins.
A constituent urged the legislators to made contact with the county supervisors outside of the office, as they are busy. Another topic that was brought up multiple times was the possibility of consolidating county courthouses. Hagenow said that Iowa has more elected officials than any other state in the union, not just per capita.