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Good morning. I'm going to call to order the Lynn County Board of Supervisors meeting today.

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We have a public hearing on proposed property tax levy for fiscal year 2025. First up, are

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we going to? I'd make the motion to open a public hearing on proposed property tax levy

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rate for fiscal year 2025. Second. All in favor, any further discussion? All in favor say

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aye. Aye. Aye. First up, we have Sarah Barrows. Good morning, Sarah. Good morning, Sarah

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Barrow's budget director. I do have proofs of publication for the notice that went out

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in the Lynn newsletter, Mount Vernon, Lisbon Sun-Times and the Gazette. We also posted it

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on all of our social media sites and on the Lynn County website. For the public hearing

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I have had quite a few phone calls regarding more so the budget statement mailing that

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went out I think then the notice that was published in the paper but have had a

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lot of feedback from the public on that the various questions I've gotten are

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you know first of all what what is this this is new what does this mean why our

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tax is going up for the county what are the other jurisdictions going to do what's

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my tax bill going to be things along those lines just to reiterate for the

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public that's here this is new this year it's a component of the House file

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718 that was passed that replaces the max levy Senate file 634 that we've done in

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the past where we do an initial meeting to talk about what the levy rate what

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the board is proposing to do with the levy rate the mailing that went out is

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new it was sent out by the Lynn County Auditor's Office but does have

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information from multiple taxing jurisdictions depending on where the

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individual lives and the purpose of the mailing was to show what the board or city council

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or school board was proposing to do with their tax levy.

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It wasn't necessarily meant to be, you know, like a tax bill or anything like that.

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Bills come out in August and those have the actual tax amount due.

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We also have, you know, another meeting in April where we actually finalize the

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budget so there's still a few more steps in the process before we get to A, a finalized

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budget and B, a tax bill.

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This public hearing we have prepared a PowerPoint just to address some of the questions that

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I did receive.

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I know you guys have had phone calls as well, some emails, whatever correspondence people

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have sent in.

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So hopefully this answers some of those questions and if not I'd be happy to touch on any

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questions people might have. Do I do a question?

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So our budget process begins in

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November. It begins with a meeting with the Board of Supervisors to discuss and

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set the different budget initiatives for the year and that it actually starts

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with a public forum as well where the public can come to a 5 p.m. meeting and

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you know voice any of their questions or concerns regarding the next year's

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budget. Then in December and January we hold the departmental meetings. Those

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are held Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1.30 p.m. where the board meets with every

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department with Don the finance director and myself and we discuss what that department's

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budget what they're proposing for their budget for the next fiscal year. In February we

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are typically finalizing the budget where the board gets to the point where they're

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discussing can we fund any offers do we have to make any reductions and what are we

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looking to do with the levy rate. Then we're in March here where with again with

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the new house file 718 we mailed out the budget year statement for FY 25 this

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compares the FY 24 tax rate with the proposed FY 25 tax rate for the county

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the school and the city authorities and then we're here now at the public

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hearing for that for that mailing and then in April we'll have our public

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hearing on the total budget and adopt and certify the budget no later than April 30th.

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Again, all of the notices for all of these meetings are posted in our three newspapers

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on social media and on the website. I will note with the budget mailing there where it says it

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compares the FY24 tax rate with the new proposed tax rate, one of the confusing elements of the

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mailing which unfortunately the state did not allow us to make any changes to the mailing.

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It was a it was boilerplate language every county across Iowa sent out the exact same mailing

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It on the back side it compares a

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FY 24 tax rate with a $100,000 home and then an FY 25 tax rate with a

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$100,000 home and does not take into account that assessed values on those homes change

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Either every year every two years

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So I did want to just point that out that while it compares the tax rates

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It does not compare a change in value or

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With the rollback the same in both years. No, the rollback has changed as well

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And I do have a slide on the rollback amounts as well. Thank you

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So the FY 25 budget summary for just Lynn County, we don't we're not discussing the information for like the cities or the schools today

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Just for the Lynn County portion

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The levy rate proposed is proposed to increase from five point nine six to six dollars and seven cents

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The rural rate, we're proposing a decrease from $2.71 to $2.63, and this does include

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the reduction of $1 for rural residents from the local option sales tax allocation that

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was voted on, and I have another slide in here about that allocation of lost.

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The expenditure budget, so the expenditures are what the board is proposing to spend

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for the fiscal year the expenditure budget is 157.1 million which is an

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increase of 3.2% from the prior year that equates to an increase of about 4.9

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million dollars and I've had questions on you know what does that for what is

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that 4.9 million comprised of and it's primarily comprised of the

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following five items we have increases in salaries and wages so for non

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bargaining unit and confidential employees, those are budgeted at 4%.

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Bargaining unit contracts for AFSCME, AFSCME Conservation, AFSCME EMA went up to 4%.

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Bargaining unit contracts for PPME, Sargents, and Assistant County Attorneys went to 5.75%.

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We did not need to include an increase for health or dental rates in the FY25 budget.

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We also saw an average increase of 9% in our software contracts.

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Those softwares that we use we literally cannot conduct business without them

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and we're kind of at the mercy of the vendors on those increases.

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Additionally, we saw increases in utilities.

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We saw about 11% increase in our electric bills,

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6% increase in gas and 5% increase in water.

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In November of 2024, we will have a presidential election and there have been some costs related

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to that election that went up that, you know, were required to have a certain number of

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precincts or polling places or technology available.

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And so those costs are unavoidable as well.

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And then lastly, we had an increase in our debt service, Levy, and that is due to

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the issuance of bonds from the voter-approved water and land legacy.

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Yes.

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And that was three cents three cents.

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So in addition to the expenditure budget, which is what we are going to spend

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We have a revenue budget, which is what we are going to bring in and we do have revenues other than property taxes

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That I think the county works really hard to generate to you know supplement the property tax revenue that we get

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Revenues actually increased by six point four percent some of that is the increase in property taxes

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but then we also have a decent increase in investment earnings, camping revenue, and local option sales tax.

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Local option sales tax revenue is budgeted.

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3.8 million is budgeted for road construction, 1.9 million for conservation projects,

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and 1.9 million in property tax relief for rural residents.

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And again, that allocation was a voter-approved allocation to make that split.

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But unfortunately in FY 25 we saw a decrease of 1.6 million in federal inmate revenue so

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that we had to make up the board did make some cuts to the budget to address that decrease

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in revenue.

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And then lastly for the FY 25 budget there were no offers approved.

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There were a couple million dollars in offer submitted but there were no extra funds available

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and the board chose not to increase the levy further

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to approve any additional offers.

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I think you should say what an offer is.

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So an offer is a request for a new initiative,

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a new staff person, not necessarily a new vehicle.

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We have a separate process to request a new vehicle.

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But this would be like if somebody

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and not a grant funded position.

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This would be a general fund funded request

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that is new to the department

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or that is a new staff person.

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And countywide we had no that we didn't we were not able to approve any of we correct

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We're unable to fund any of those the request did come in and and obviously the board listened to those but

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We didn't the funding wasn't there

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As long as there are people here should I think it should also be noted on behalf of the sheriff's department

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that

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We were down to like nine inmates. I believe for the federal marshals. They weren't utilizing the whole

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agreement that they agreed two years ago and so the 1.6 million was a little I'm

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going to call it fictitious to begin with because it's based on inmates it's

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based on inmates and then a per diem per inmate right but but we were receiving

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far less inmates all the time so him giving that up or the sheriff's office

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giving that up isn't the impact that it appears to be sure so

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I also had

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quite a few questions on the property tax process.

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The process involves multiple different offices

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at the county, at the cities, at the schools,

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at Kirkwood Egg Extension, all those loving authorities.

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But it does start with the assessment of property,

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and that is done by either the county

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or the city of Cedar Rapids Assessor

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depending on where an individual lives.

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Once those properties are assessed,

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the auditor's office, the county auditor's office,

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takes those valuations and totals them

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by taxing jurisdiction and by class.

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So there's multiple classes of property.

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We have residential, we have egg, commercial, et cetera.

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The Department of Revenue is responsible for looking

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at those assessed values and determining what part

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of that assessed value should be taxable.

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We do not, if you have a $250,000 home,

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we do not tax all $250,000 of that.

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It is rolled back by a certain percentage each year,

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which then helps to cap the state overall

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in growth. This year the rollback was significantly different for almost every

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class except for commercial then it has been in previous years and I have a

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couple slides on that as well. The cities the schools and the counties all

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hold their budget meetings to determine expenditures and their ability to

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generate additional revenues like grants or charges for services. Again we

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talked about our meetings start in December or in November excuse me and

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go through February each jurisdiction is going to be a little bit

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different. The amount of tax revenue that is needed is determined during those

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budget meetings and we divide that into that taxable value. So the taxable value

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is the assessed value rolled back by the state to a taxable value and then we

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use that to calculate the tax rate. The tax rate is then what is applied

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against that taxable value that and that creates a property tax bill. So

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you have a taxable value, a tax rate, and then you get a tax bill. Once a

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citizen pays their tax bill they do pay that to the Lynn County treasure but

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obviously that's not all of Lynn County's money so the Lynn County treasure

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then distributes that money to the various levying authorities like the

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schools or the city so that everybody gets their piece of what was levied

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against a property. And Sarah can I just add in here I had a couple people who

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had questions and it ended up there were more questions on their

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assessments and right now and I know this isn't necessarily the topic we're

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having right now but for I received this from Jerry Witt our county assessor

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that the appeal process for the 2024 assessments are now until the end of

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April for people. I think it's just a good time since we're talking about

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property tax process to just highlight that one more time that if if you can

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only appeal your 2024 right now until April 30th but you do have that window

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until April 30th right now. Right and so the the 2024 assessment will apply to

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the FY26 budget. No. You have to wait till public comment. That might be but we

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Okay, I'm just looking off what Jerry was and that information is available on the county assessor's website and the city assessor's website

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But yes, that actually applies to the FY 26 taxes

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So the period to appeal your assessment for the upcoming tax bill that's coming in August was last year

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All right, can I just read this real quick the appeal period for the 2024 assessments is right now

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But it will not change 2023 assessments. You need to contact our office the assessor's office

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We will schedule an appointment for a walkthrough of the property if we have not had one in many years

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Formal petitions are accepted at any time, but will be considered

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untimely filed if received before April 2nd or postmarked after April 30th

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And that's for anyone who doesn't live in Cedar Rapids. That's right outside of

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municipalities that don't contract or

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or the purview of the Lynn County Assessor.

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So the Cedar Rapids Assessor is maybe different.

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I don't know what the Cedar Rapids City Assessor is saying.

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So if you live in Cedar Rapids,

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you contact the Cedar Rapids Assessor.

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Oh boy, this did not pass.

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Okay, we're gonna skip that slide. What this pie chart is supposed to show, which I'm not

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on mine, it's clear, but on here it is obviously not, is that Lynn County only gets a piece

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of that tax bill so that we get about 14 to 16% of a resident's taxes. The other portions

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go to, again, the cities, the schools. The schools typically receive about 38% of a property

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tax bill. The cities typically receive about 42 percent and then there's some

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miscellaneous levies that receive the other five percent. There are school

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districts, Lin-Mar and others that have done significant bonding that may be the

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majority of someone's tax bill. Could, it would vary by district. I believe

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Cedar Rapids went down but I know Mount Vernon and college community went up.

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So yeah, everybody's situation is going to be different. Ours is the smallest

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portion. Ours would be the second smallest the miscellaneous levies would

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be the smallest. But yeah I did receive some phone calls from people who were

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curious about you know what's Prairie doing and stuff like that. On the budget

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mailing are the phone numbers for those other jurisdictions and residents

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would need to call those authorities to find out what they're doing with

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their levy rate. I don't have that information. And so another you know

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I would say the majority of the phone calls people were wondering you know

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what is this going to do to my taxes?

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And obviously, tax bills don't come out until August,

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but there are some tools that you can use

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to kind of figure out whether or not

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your taxes would go up or down.

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There's a tax estimator on both the county assessor's

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website and the city assessor's website

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where you can enter in your address.

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It takes you to your property.

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You can see your assessed value for multiple years.

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You can see tax bill information for multiple years,

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and then there's an estimator on there.

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And in big letters underneath it says this is an estimate only, but it can give residents

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an idea of what might be happening with their tax bill for the upcoming fiscal year.

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The assessed value again is decided by the city or county assessor.

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I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly what their formula is, but I do know that

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they take market comps into consideration, homes that have sold in the neighborhood

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or the area, to determine those assessed values.

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for Cedar Rapids the average residential increase was about 15% and for non

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Cedar Rapids so for the County Assessor it was an average residential

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increase of 25%. In Cedar Rapids they are estimating for residential

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properties only that about 66% of residential properties saw we'll see a

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decrease in the Lynn County tax portion and about 34% of residential

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properties will see an increase in the Lynn County tax portion. Again, that's

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just Lynn County. Even if your Lynn County portion decreased, your whole

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tax bill could go up because of something the city or the school did. For

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the County Assessor's Office, they're estimating that about 24 percent of

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residential properties will see a decrease in the Lynn County tax portion,

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and about 76 percent of residential properties will see an increase in the

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Lynn County tax portion. Supervisor Rogers touched a little bit on the

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state rollback. The residential state rollback, which is determined by the

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Department of Revenue for the entire state of Iowa, changed from FY24 to FY25.

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In FY24, 54.65 percent of a home's value was taxed. In FY25, only 46.34

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percent of a home's assessed value is going to be taxed. So that's this

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pretty significant change and kind of counteracts some of the increase in the

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assessed value. It's a big calculation that has a lot of moving parts. This is

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just one of them that people would need to take into account. When you use the tax

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estimator on the county assessor's website or the city assessor's website,

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it does take into account the new rollback and shows you what that rollback

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is. Those websites also take into account if you have a homestead exemption,

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military, you know, any of those types of things added on to your bill or

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taken away I should say. This slide is a little bit busy but this gives you just a very brief

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overview of what might happen to again only the Lynn County portion of a tax bill depending

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on how your assessed value changed. In the first example we have a 15% increase in assessed

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value for City of Cedar Rapids residents which again that's the average they saw.

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So in FY 24 the prior fiscal year if you had a $200,000 home and that home went up

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to $230,000 you would see a $4 decrease in your Lynn County tax that you would

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pay. Again that rollback plays a factor in that. $4 per thought or just $4

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total. $4 in your tax bill. Lynn County portion only not the total tax

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bill. Then in the county the highest assessed value that the county assessor

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saw there were some areas of the county that saw a 40% increase in their

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assessed value for those taxpayers again not in the city of Cedar Rapids and

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Lynn County portion only could see a hundred and thirty seven dollar increase

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in their tax bill on a two hundred thousand dollar home two hundred

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thousand dollar home that went to a two hundred thousand two hundred eighty

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thousand dollar value so we're taking to account the increase in value the

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change in rollback and the change in the levy rate and that that comes out to

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about 21 percent I did the same thing then for a 25 percent increase or a 5

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percent decrease because there are some county assessed properties that saw

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decrease in their home value for those residents they could potentially see up

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to a 17 percent decrease in the Lynn County portion of their tax bill so

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So it's just important to highlight that everybody's situation is different, assessed values,

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the percent of change of assessed values could change between you and your neighbor.

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It's not necessarily all of one city went up 40%, all of one area went up 25%.

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It's very different.

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And then again, each taxpayer has a different combination of tax rates depending on what

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city and school district they live in.

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But these are just four examples.

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When we talk about egg and commercial, again, those values are determined by the county

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and city assessor.

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A little bit different for egg, but, you know, we're going to keep it high level.

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For the county increase in agricultural properties, they saw an average of about 32 percent.

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City of Cedar Rapids has quite a bit less egg properties, but they did have a 18 percent

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in the egg properties that they do have.

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The county saw an increase in assessed value in commercial properties of 18%,

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and then the Cedar Rapids City Assessor saw an average increase of about 11% in commercial.

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There's a state rollback for agricultural properties.

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You can see that changed by quite a bit.

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91% of those agricultural properties assessed value was taxed in FY24.

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In FY25, that's only 71.84%.

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So, another big change in the rollback by the state.

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For commercial properties, there was no change in the state rollback from FY24.

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The rollback is a little bit more complicated for commercial properties.

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They actually get a residential rollback, so they'll only pay 46% of the burst $150,000

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in value.

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After that, anything above $150,000, they'll pay 90%.

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But again, no change from FY24.

299
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and then this is the same chart just for either an egg property or commercial

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property with those same percentages that I just talked about farmland in the

301
00:22:43,930 --> 00:22:50,710
county could see a 3.9% increase if their assessed value went up by the

302
00:22:50,710 --> 00:22:56,510
32% and then in the city they could see a 7% decrease for commercial

303
00:22:56,510 --> 00:23:01,430
properties in the county they could see a 19% increase if their commercial

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00:23:01,430 --> 00:23:07,910
property increased by 18% and then in the city 11% they could see a 12% increase again

305
00:23:07,910 --> 00:23:13,530
that's only in the Lynn County portion of their taxes which is you know 14 to 16% of the total

306
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tax bill.

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Okay that was a lot of information. Do you guys have any questions or would

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you like to add anything to what I presented? Well again Sarah and Dawn thank you so much

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00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:37,820
for all that you did this year to guide the board through really challenging budget decisions,

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much of it a result of what we call House File 718, which really caps the growth or places

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growth caps on municipalities and we experienced that this year where we grew 4.4%, but based

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on legislation we were only allowed to keep 2.4%.

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We had increases in utilities, increases in salary and benefits, marginal increases in healthcare and again a decrease in the rollback.

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So there was a lot of pressures placed on this board to make some decisions where we I think ultimately ended up cutting about $2 million.

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dollars if I'm if I recall correctly and adding about two million into the supplemental levy it was almost a

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About it was a very balanced cut for

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Certain services and to maintain certain level of services not just not even to grow just to maintain

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And that was a decision that the majority of the board felt was appropriate

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All these meetings have been open to the public

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Starting from the budget forum all the way till today

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Do appreciate people's questions. I know you've gotten calls. I've gotten calls my colleagues have all gotten calls

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This is important. I think that this letter

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00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:55,480
Again was an unfunded mandate by the state

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There was a very quick turnaround time the reason why I think people got it on Friday and we're having a meeting today

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00:25:01,420 --> 00:25:08,140
Is that was the legislative requirement? It didn't allow us any ability to change the language. We have to pay for it

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Out of our own budgets. There's not money's provided

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And I think it, while the idea was to create more transparency,

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I think it also caused a lot of confusion.

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And so hopefully the legislature looks at that

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and maybe makes some improvements to it

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if they require municipalities to,

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or us to send it out on behalf of municipalities.

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So again, I appreciate it.

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I look forward to any comments that people might have,

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but this was a challenging budget year.

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And again, if you could just highlight

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what the next step, so people listening

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or who are in attendance today want to come to future meetings on our budget, when could

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they do so?

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Sure.

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So there's no action that technically gets taken today, but at the 10 a.m. meeting we

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will set another public hearing where we actually would discuss the approval and certification

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of the final budget and I would request at the 10 a.m. meeting that that be set

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for April 17th at 10 a.m.

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So that would be the next and last budget meeting.

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So we would vote up or down. The entire budget. Yeah, you're not able to increase. No, I mean, I'm sorry. We either approve. Oh, yes. Okay. We're not at April 17th meeting. And that's this board's decision. Okay. Thank you.

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00:26:28,060 --> 00:26:29,680
Just again a little bit.

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00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:39,560
It's worth repeating that the amount of work that you and Don have put in for all of these

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months, it's not just today or this week, of listening to us.

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We worked with different department heads, electeds, for since last November on identifying

351
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ways that we could save money.

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We ended up having to make a cut to our budget of, I think it was $1.1 million, $2 million

353
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:05,320
this year, at the same time trying to find efficiencies to make it work.

354
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When earlier you talked about no offers were taken, there are many departments and many

355
00:27:12,180 --> 00:27:17,240
electeds that had, they identified that these are either staff positions or things

356
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:21,380
that they need in their office or their departments to move forward.

357
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and we were unable to fund any of those so no offers were accepted and just to you

358
00:27:30,740 --> 00:27:33,440
know it when

359
00:27:36,060 --> 00:27:41,600
we move to raise the the levy rate from to six dollars and seven

360
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:46,120
cents from five dollars and ninety six cents I know we're talking about 11

361
00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:53,400
cents there but every single penny I think we worked hard to you know take

362
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:57,980
in consideration. These are people's hard earned dollars and we want to be good stewards

363
00:27:57,980 --> 00:28:04,600
of that as well. And I think that the budget we put forward was fair and reasonable. We

364
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:12,420
made our fair share of cuts and, you know, kept in mind the balance that we need to

365
00:28:12,420 --> 00:28:16,900
strike with providing a level of excellence of service for people here in Lynn County

366
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:26,940
and also understanding that, you know, every penny that people are paying and it's not an

367
00:28:26,940 --> 00:28:33,840
excuse or it's not, you know, whatever. Lynn County is 15% of the property, about 15%

368
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:41,020
or average is 14 to 16 throughout the county of your property tax bill and, you know, I

369
00:28:41,020 --> 00:28:44,560
was trying to see the silver lining of that letter. It ended up causing a lot of confusion

370
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:49,160
to folks but at least I think some people were able to see from that the

371
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,720
breakdown of where your property taxes are going and how we're using that and

372
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,800
just wanted to say thank you all for your work and thank the whole county all

373
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,180
the department heads everyone around the county was looking for ways where we

374
00:29:01,180 --> 00:29:04,360
could find budget efficiencies and looking for ways that they could be

375
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:08,100
good stewards of tax dollars as well moving forward and still provide the

376
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level of excellence that people have come to know and expect here in

377
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:19,720
Inland County and also many things that were statutorily obligated to provide either you can call those unfunded mandates or not

378
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:23,340
but you know, we really have to find that balance of

379
00:29:24,380 --> 00:29:30,160
Providing those services. So thank you. I look forward today to hearing people's public comment on

380
00:29:31,220 --> 00:29:33,100
on this budget and

381
00:29:34,340 --> 00:29:41,260
You can't be thanked enough for all of the work and you know from us having to deal with us sometimes

382
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:46,680
elected department heads but then also wielding conversations and questions

383
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:51,900
from the public too so thank you very much. Yeah I want to first of all clarify

384
00:29:51,900 --> 00:29:55,800
that none of my comments have anything to do with the lack of work or time that

385
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,560
you too and your colleagues upstairs put into the budget.

386
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,340
I believe one thing that was good that happened out of the mailing, we actually have people

387
00:30:04,340 --> 00:30:12,820
at a budget meeting. So welcome. It's really, maybe next year, this process starts in November,

388
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:18,020
but it really starts for the public piloter than that, I would say, when we really start

389
00:30:18,020 --> 00:30:21,120
having public come to the meetings, and we really start putting the budget together.

390
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:22,320
When does that start?

391
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:28,440
We usually, our public forum is usually like the Monday before Thanksgiving is the first

392
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:32,060
public meeting and then obviously the board discusses initiatives at the 10 a.m.

393
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:36,560
meeting that week as well right so that's really the meeting that the public

394
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:40,520
needs to get energized about and start coming to you because then then your

395
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:47,860
input is taken into consideration from the beginning I understand what

396
00:30:47,860 --> 00:30:52,280
legislature did what they did they were overwhelmed with people's phone calls

397
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,780
and messages to do something about property taxes because in many

398
00:30:55,780 --> 00:31:00,240
situations counties weren't willing to do it so I'm not saying that that would be

399
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,900
how I fixed it how they fixed it but that was what they did and we have to

400
00:31:03,900 --> 00:31:10,200
live with it I believe we only actually we did not take two million from our

401
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:15,980
budget it was somewhere between 1.1 and 800,000 and I personally believe that

402
00:31:15,980 --> 00:31:19,920
that we could have probably done done better but many of the things are the

403
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:23,140
way they are it's a it's not a three-legged stool like the

404
00:31:23,140 --> 00:31:28,280
legislature where you have two branches in the governor, but we do have three supervisors

405
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:34,380
and so at the end, it's a compromised budget that probably none of us are happy with.

406
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:39,280
Or maybe some of you are happy with it, but I think we are all three frustrated about

407
00:31:40,820 --> 00:31:41,880
where it ended up.

408
00:31:42,700 --> 00:31:47,420
Like I said, nothing bearing on you guys, and we are frustrated for different reasons.

409
00:31:47,420 --> 00:31:53,200
meetings, but we did spend a lot of time with it. And I hope that in future meetings early

410
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:58,560
on that the public does start coming to meetings and voice in their opinions. I know I got

411
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:05,040
several phone calls about today's meeting. And I'm grateful for them. In fact, I stopped

412
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:10,760
and talked to a group of people this morning. I encourage them to come. Unfortunately, they

413
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:16,700
felt talking to me there was all they really needed. But that's just the way it goes.

414
00:32:16,700 --> 00:32:19,160
But but we didn't we do spend a lot of time with it

415
00:32:19,900 --> 00:32:26,260
Our staff spends a whole lot of time with it and we do try to do the best that we can do in a combined effort

416
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:32,180
And just if I may from a historical perspective having some tenure on this board

417
00:32:32,180 --> 00:32:37,980
We do budget zero percent growth and operations. We don't do an automatic everyone gets one percent three percent

418
00:32:37,980 --> 00:32:42,980
And it's been that way for well over a decade zero percent in operational growth

419
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:51,500
The levy rate today is lower than when this was a five-member board back in 2009, even

420
00:32:51,500 --> 00:32:56,140
though we've seen a flood, we've seen a recession, economic recovery, a derecho.

421
00:32:58,820 --> 00:33:05,280
This board, previous boards and with our staff here have really looked at how to be one

422
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:10,260
of the most efficient and effective forms of local government and the fact that I

423
00:33:10,260 --> 00:33:12,220
I think you can compare us to almost any other municipality

424
00:33:12,780 --> 00:33:14,680
and you would be hard pressed to find people

425
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:16,240
who have reduced the levy rates.

426
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:18,940
Some of it due to the state buying out

427
00:33:18,940 --> 00:33:22,400
the mental health system, but before that we were reducing

428
00:33:23,500 --> 00:33:26,580
our levy rates, finding efficiencies not growing

429
00:33:26,580 --> 00:33:29,940
as much as we could or should as a growing community.

430
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:32,340
So that's something throughout time I have been proud of

431
00:33:32,340 --> 00:33:37,020
that individuals' county tax rates are still lower

432
00:33:37,020 --> 00:33:38,880
today than they were 15 years ago.

433
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:50,600
So that may be efficiency, that may be effectiveness but it is where we are today and I agree with

434
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,760
Supervisor Zumba that this was a compromised budget.

435
00:33:54,140 --> 00:33:55,340
He didn't get everything he wanted.

436
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:57,120
I didn't get everything I wanted.

437
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:01,400
Kirsten didn't get everything she wanted in terms of growth or cuts or vice versa.

438
00:34:02,020 --> 00:34:09,040
We had to make some really difficult decisions that meant telling, again, certain electeds

439
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:12,580
or department heads who were telling us that they have key positions that need to be filled

440
00:34:12,580 --> 00:34:17,980
or, you know, the county attorney saying they need felony prosecutors too because they

441
00:34:17,980 --> 00:34:22,400
are just overwhelmed or sheriff's deputies that were just unable to hire based on

442
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:27,560
this next year will be a much different year, substantially different year.

443
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:33,680
And so we really do while we're looking at this year's budget now our eyes are already on the horizon for next year

444
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:41,600
And I think some very difficult very difficult budget decisions are going to have to be made. So obviously my comments there. I

445
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:43,820
Have one more request. I guess of my colleagues

446
00:34:44,620 --> 00:34:49,240
Up to you guys, but if we have anybody from the public that comments that

447
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,140
warrants some discussion or

448
00:34:52,940 --> 00:34:56,240
The clarification would that be all right with you guys if we did that?

449
00:34:56,980 --> 00:35:03,260
I mean, normally the public speaks, but there's no interaction, so I'm just asking if that's

450
00:35:03,260 --> 00:35:03,920
okay with my colleagues.

451
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:10,600
I think you're holding a public hearing, so there can be back and forth.

452
00:35:11,060 --> 00:35:11,080
Great.

453
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:12,240
Thank you, Becky.

454
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:13,560
As long as it's on this issue.

455
00:35:14,060 --> 00:35:14,160
Yes.

456
00:35:14,380 --> 00:35:14,480
Okay.

457
00:35:14,700 --> 00:35:14,900
Great.

458
00:35:15,180 --> 00:35:15,500
Thank you.

459
00:35:15,620 --> 00:35:21,160
And Sarah and Dawn, you're both willing to answer any clarifying questions as well.

460
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:21,560
Yes.

461
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:22,100
Thank you.

462
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:24,160
Okay.

463
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,480
We're going to begin our public comment period.

464
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,140
This is a five-minute limit per speaker

465
00:35:29,140 --> 00:35:33,540
It's an opportunity for the public to address the board on any subject pertaining to board business

466
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:36,080
Do we need to close the public hearing then?

467
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:44,780
Is there any please welcome

468
00:35:46,900 --> 00:35:47,860
Are you going to time?

469
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:49,080
I can do it.

470
00:35:49,300 --> 00:35:49,920
You got it, Ben?

471
00:35:50,220 --> 00:35:50,580
I got it.

472
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:50,700
Great.

473
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:51,060
Thank you.

474
00:35:51,700 --> 00:35:53,240
Could you state your name and address, please?

475
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:54,060
Or location?

476
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:58,820
Nelson Bethke, 1276 Ivanhoe Road, Mount Vernon.

477
00:36:00,380 --> 00:36:03,600
I appreciate the effort everybody's put into this budget.

478
00:36:03,980 --> 00:36:06,720
And I understand that it's a difficult thing.

479
00:36:06,820 --> 00:36:07,700
Nobody likes taxes.

480
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:12,720
But I think most people understand that they are a necessary evil in our society.

481
00:36:13,860 --> 00:36:22,020
A couple things that I wanted to mention, I think it would help a lot if there was some

482
00:36:22,500 --> 00:36:31,760
written communication about the choices that are being made by both the budget, the people

483
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:36,700
put together the budget and the members of the county.

484
00:36:38,180 --> 00:36:44,120
If that was disseminated, maybe along with that statement that's mandated by the state,

485
00:36:45,340 --> 00:36:48,240
unless they're prohibiting that, I think it would be helpful.

486
00:36:49,260 --> 00:36:51,360
I think people would be much more accepting of it.

487
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:58,100
The other thing is I was curious if we could also have some information

488
00:36:58,100 --> 00:37:00,940
and perhaps it's been just discussed during the public meetings,

489
00:37:01,100 --> 00:37:05,900
but if there was some way that we could put together some kind of a written document

490
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:11,800
about the cost savings that have been implemented I'm sure there have been

491
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:16,620
cost savings implemented I can't believe there haven't been but to the general

492
00:37:16,620 --> 00:37:22,080
public for the most of us we don't see that all we see is we want more money we

493
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:26,160
want more money we want more money from your point of view you may say well we've

494
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,780
already cut we've cut we've cut we've cut we don't see that we don't

495
00:37:29,780 --> 00:37:33,740
know that you know that but if we don't know that that creates some

496
00:37:33,740 --> 00:37:38,120
angst on our part thinking that there's just a constant demand for additional money and

497
00:37:38,620 --> 00:37:41,280
No effort made for efficiencies consolidations

498
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,000
Cuts in areas where there's redundancy that type of thing

499
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:51,420
I think it would help a lot if you put something together that was able to be published in

500
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:52,440
writing

501
00:37:53,780 --> 00:37:54,920
Just a suggestion

502
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,980
Extra work. Yeah, but I think it would help

503
00:37:58,660 --> 00:38:01,980
Reduce the amount of pushback you got when taxes go up

504
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:08,200
The other thing I had to notice that 11% increase in electric utility

505
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:15,440
What happened all the savings from renewable energy that we were supposed to get I was supposed to reduce our

506
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:19,980
Electrical charges not increase them by 11% and just seems odd to me

507
00:38:19,980 --> 00:38:23,680
So that's just about all I had to say. Thank you.

508
00:38:28,390 --> 00:38:31,110
Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment?

509
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:37,700
Thank you for being here today if you could state your name and

510
00:38:37,700 --> 00:38:46,920
My name is Kelly Murda and I live at 4194 Quail Ridge Road in Center Point and to

511
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:50,460
kind of echo what the gentleman said about the electric rates that's the one

512
00:38:50,460 --> 00:38:57,220
that draws my most attention. I actually requested budget information from the

513
00:38:57,220 --> 00:39:03,780
county to look at what's been paid previously what's being budgeted. I have

514
00:39:03,780 --> 00:39:07,840
concerns about the homeless overflow shelter. I have concerns about general

515
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:14,020
assistance I have concerns about all of those areas of the budgets that are impacted significantly.

516
00:39:14,940 --> 00:39:18,040
Let me look at what it was and what it is and now we're looking at the budget.

517
00:39:18,900 --> 00:39:23,480
There are actions being taken by this board to approve projects that are driving those

518
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:24,480
increases of rates.

519
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:31,300
And I would urge that you take action to file with the utility board your concerns

520
00:39:31,300 --> 00:39:37,280
about the impact that the rate increases are having on our budget this year and

521
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:43,400
budget next year. The 11% I think is anticipated but that's not a guaranteed. We don't know what's

522
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:49,060
going to happen at this date with those budgets impacts from utilities. So thank you for your time.

523
00:39:49,380 --> 00:39:49,620
Thank you.

524
00:39:53,830 --> 00:39:58,550
Did you want to, I'm sorry, this is maybe now the time if you felt that we gave

525
00:39:58,550 --> 00:40:01,090
an incorrect date. Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

526
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:07,660
Just want to state your name please. Morning.

527
00:40:08,220 --> 00:40:14,100
Jane Russell. Good morning. 5265 Frozen Hill Road, Monticello. So the date on the

528
00:40:14,100 --> 00:40:19,920
board a review at the April 30th. I just wanted to make sure that you did. It

529
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,720
concludes April 30th as far as the petitions being able to be filed. They

530
00:40:23,720 --> 00:40:28,500
are considered untitlingly and then typically denied. So that causes some

531
00:40:28,500 --> 00:40:34,380
anguish. So if it's postmarked after April 30th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I

532
00:40:34,380 --> 00:40:41,860
just have a perspective to offer on the increase in budget. I just you

533
00:40:41,860 --> 00:40:45,020
and we paid our final payment for the current taxes due

534
00:40:45,020 --> 00:40:49,320
and when I look at what my tax bill will be coming up,

535
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:56,900
I will be giving 26% of the very generous raise

536
00:40:56,900 --> 00:41:00,060
I just received, starting July 1st.

537
00:41:00,060 --> 00:41:02,180
I work for another county municipality,

538
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,000
so my raise will start July 1st.

539
00:41:05,340 --> 00:41:09,820
26% of that raise, not take home pay, my total raise,

540
00:41:09,820 --> 00:41:15,940
will be going to the increased in tax bill that I will receive for this budget. When I

541
00:41:15,940 --> 00:41:21,140
compared to what I just paid. I live in a very modest house. I just received a generous

542
00:41:21,140 --> 00:41:28,460
raise. So I'm okay. I'm okay. But there are people who are not. So if you're looking at

543
00:41:28,460 --> 00:41:33,580
that across the entire county, that's a problem. That's a problem for young families

544
00:41:33,580 --> 00:41:40,580
who are trying to pencil out their budgets themselves. I would like to address your statement

545
00:41:40,580 --> 00:41:48,360
on the levy rate not increasing since 2009 or decreasing. I'm sorry you said it decreased

546
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:53,760
since 2009. What was the change in taxable value for the county since 2009?

547
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:56,500
What was

548
00:41:56,500 --> 00:42:01,240
the I mean what was your taxable value for the county in 2009 versus your taxable value

549
00:42:01,240 --> 00:42:10,060
now. That's why the levy rate went down. It is. It's not because the budgets have stayed the same.

550
00:42:10,780 --> 00:42:13,920
I just wanted to point that out. Thank you.

551
00:42:16,950 --> 00:42:22,360
Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to

552
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:24,780
come to the mic and add

553
00:42:26,900 --> 00:42:27,500
their public comment?

554
00:42:31,410 --> 00:42:33,490
Okay, I'll do one more call. Anyone else would

555
00:42:33,490 --> 00:42:43,300
like to come to the microphone to make a comment we will go ahead and I'll second

556
00:42:43,300 --> 00:42:48,980
it any further discussion on favor say aye aye and we will move to adjournment

557
00:42:48,980 --> 00:42:51,060
thank you all for being here today and your participation