Cerro Gordo supervisor candidates quizzed about budget during forum

MASON CITY — Maintaining a budget that provides essential services for residents while dealing with rising costs was one of the issues brought up this week to candidates for the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors during a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of North Iowa.

Third District supervisor, Democrat Lori Meacham Ginapp, says looking at ways to save money at budget time is a key. “With the budget we have at the county, one of the things that I like to look at is when someone leaves a position, do we need to fill that? We ask them to go for a while before we fill that position, let’s see where we can save the money. We need to educate people. That’s why I go down to ISAC, I go to the supervisors’ training meeting. We need to figure out where we can pool our resources together and how we can save the money and it all goes back to you guys.”

Meacham Ginapp’s opponent, Republican Carl Ginapp of Mason City, says everybody is learning to do more with less, and that’s what the county needs to do as well. “Rising costs are definitely an issue. Inflation has been out of control. It costs more to do everything, but at the same time, our state legislature has limited the increase rate in our taxes as the value of our homes go up, but either way, it’s very important. So that being said, tax increases will be limited by statute, and services are not free. We need to prioritize, we need to streamline, and we need to be very fiscally responsible.”

First District supervisor Republican Chris Watts says he’d like to see a tax freeze for seniors and disabled residents of the county, offset by revenue from economic development projects. “Elderly people are just taking it in the shorts, and we’re losing people to other states and other counties because they can’t afford to live here. We’ve got to get our taxes under control. We have lowered the tax rate in this county seven of the last eight years I’ve been in office. We held it solid the first year, the last seven, it went down.”

Watts’ challenger, Democrat Tim Lapointe, says his economic development plan will help bring in businesses that will help increase property tax revenue to the county.  “That’s why I’m supporting wind and solar projects. It’s going to bring multiple millions of dollars into Cerro Gordo County. Help with the tax assessments, raise the revenues necessary to help people and the agencies that help people, to better serve the citizens of Cerro Gordo County.”

You can listen back to the entire candidate forum via the audio player below