Mason City’s city administrator says he’s keeping a close eye on property tax cap bill
MASON CITY — Mason City’s city administrator says the proposal by Republican legislators to set new limits on city and county budget growth is one that city leaders are keeping their eyes on.
Aaron Burnett says putting a hard cap on allowable growth in city budgets will hurt local governments. “When you get down to the nuts and bolts of a 2% hard cap, when you consider the cost for law enforcement ,for construction, for paving, everything, insurance, the things that cities have to buy, the same that the state has to buy. Frankly, they know that growth at 2% is going to constrain and cut the legs out from local governments.”
Burnett says only having 2% allowable growth does not keep up with rising prices. “Nothing out there has gone up by 2% over the last ten years. We tracked our purchases from a local government position and units like a ton of asphalt or salt for the roads or a paramedic or police officer wage, and on average, those went up by 6%. So if you lock in at 2%, what’s the other 4% going to come from? That just means cuts in service and cuts in personnel.”
Republicans have said setting new limits on property taxes is their top priority this session and was one of the top concerns heard during the 2024 campaign.
Burnett made his comments during the “Ask the Mayor” podcast published earlier today, which you can find here
