Iowa City Proposed Budget Streamlines Transportation, Sees Taxes Raise Ever so Slightly

Its a new year, and among other things, that means it's budget time again.

Iowa City City Manager Tom Markus sent the city council a copy of the proposed budget in the end of December.To set the major theme of the budget, the city is currently solid when it comes to revenue it produces, but a reduction of state and federal revenue streams over the next few years will lead to required belt tightening. This year, the target for that action appears to be the transportation department.

Included in the proposed $50 million budget is the following.

• A combination of solid property values and a residential rollback that will be adjusted up this year led to the city manager recommending a lower tax rate that nontheless will still result in slightly more property taxes.
  
  The proposed property tax rate is set to drop from $17.842 per $1,000 of taxable valuation this year to $17.272 next year. However, the state residential rollback rate, i.e. the proportion of your residential property that the state allows to be taxed, is increasing from 48.53 percent to 50.75 percent. That means that even though the proposed tax rate is going down, an owner of a $100,000 home will pay $877 in property taxes,  compared to $866 last year.
• The budget proposes the reduction of 16 full-time equivalent positions from the city staff. With roughly 11 reductions coming to attrition that won't be replaced, and five positions set to be eliminated. Of these positions, nine are related to either parking or transit.
• Speaking of transit, the budget also proposes a refinement of routes, a privatization of auto repairs, and a 25 cent increase per ride fare increase.
• The landfill tipping fee will also be increased by $2, and water fees are proposed to be increased by 10 percent as well.
• Due to national budget insecurity, and the ending of grants and other sources of federal and state funding, funding from outside of Iowa City is projected to drop a great deal. Total revenue from the state and federal government is projected to be $1.2 million less this year than it was last year.

The council will have until March 15 to send their version of the budget to the county auditor. Budget work sessions are already scheduled for this Saturday and Monday. The new council will meet for the first time at an organizational meeting on Wednesday evening.