Mason City delegation meeting with state leaders at statehouse today

DES MOINES — A delegation of Mason City leaders traveled to the statehouse in Des Moines today to talk with legislators and department leaders about issues important to the area.

During the recording of the “Ask the Mayor” podcast on northiowanow.com, Mayor Bill Schickel says there’s a big concern by city and county officials statewide of what a two-percent cap on property tax growth would have.  “We’re big advocates for local control — let us decide our fate here in north Iowa and in Mason City. Some concerns about property taxes. We’re all for low property taxes, that’s why we’ve kept them low in Mason City. So we can’t have our hands tied either. If there’s a five-percent increase negotiated for our public safety, for our police department, and we’re locked in at a two-percent cap in our budget, something has to give there.”

Property owners recently received in the mail mailings ahead of public hearings stating that their property taxes rates would see a double-digit increase, when in a majority of the cases locally that’s not the case. The state-mandated form bases that information on 10% increases in property valuations, which in most cases is false information. Schickel says the practice of sending out those forms needs to stop because it’s causing great confusion for taxpayers.  “That needs to be fixed. That’s just caused a lot of confusion. That’s a classic example of a state mandate that’s caused nothing but confusion throughout the state. There’s a two-percent increase in the budget and property taxes in the bill you’ll be getting in Mason City. We were mandated to send out a notice that showed ten, in some cases a 15% increase. Totally false, inaccurate information that we’re required to use. We’re just advocating to get that fixed.”

You can hear more comments from Schickel’s appearance on the “Ask the Mayor” podcast by clicking here