LeClaire grapples with tax issues
LeCLAIRE, Iowa — Voters could be asked to approve changes in the way LeClaire uses the local option sales tax and if the city should implement a library tax levy on the upcoming Nov. 6 ballot.
City council members considered both questions at Monday night’s committee-of-the-whole meeting. The city has until Sept. 20 to officially decide if these two items will be included as measures on the Nov. 6 ballot. About $350,000 of the city’s budget comes from local option sales tax funds, according to City Administrator Edwin Choate.
If voters approve the change in uses of the tax to allow the city to use 100 percent, for example, of the money for any lawful purpose, “what it’s going to do is give you more flexibility,” says Choate.
Currently, 60 percent of those revenues are designated for debt service relief and 40 percent for major capital improvements.
The change could make an impact on the city’s general fund budget that covers public safety, library services, parks and recreation, and general administration. Last winter, department heads trimmed about $268,000 in proposed general fund expenditures for the current fiscal year. Basically, the city’s challenge was not having general fund revenues to keep up with expenditures, Choate said.
The tax under discussion would be 27 cents per thousand dollars of assessed valuation and would bring in an additional $15,000 to an annual library budget of just over $104,000.
However, the LeClaire
Community Library board of trustees is not in favor of putting the library tax question on the ballot. “We have tried very hard to live within our means, and we’re concerned it would be construed that we have not,” says board president Steve Morency.
Also, the library has received a challenge from an anonymous person who is willing to donate $10,000 toward a library endowment, he said. This is based on a condition that the library raises $20,000 by next June. The fund would be administered by the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend.
The thought of implementing a library tax levy came from the city, and not from the library, councilman Lane Bleeker said. “It’s not that the library board is doing a bad job of managing their money.”
The city’s tax base relies more on residential dollars than commercial taxes, he said. Because of the general fund situation, the city does not have the money to fund city departments at the requested levels. City officials are trying to work to hammer out solutions, he said.
The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.