Cass County Auditor Dale Sundermen, today (Wednesday), issued a statement says there appears to be a misunderstanding among the public, on what a ‘tax levy’ is.  A property ‘TAX LEVY,’ he says, is the simply the amount in dollars that is to be generated  by taxing real estate property after all other sources of revenue/funds have been considered

[Total Expenses – All other sources of funds/revenues = amount to be raised by Real Estate Property Taxes]  (See the PDF link below to see data/spread sheets)

Levy Info.

See the line titled “Total Tax Levy’ on the first page of the attachment as an example.  [Note: The Maximum Proposed Property Tax Levy only covers the ‘regular’ levies;
which means it does not include voted levies, debt service levies, ag land levies, capital project levies, etc.]

The line below that line is ‘Tax Rate’ or the rate that is calculated by dividing the ‘Tax Levy’ by the “Regular Taxable Valuation/1,000”. When the valuation increases, the ‘Tax Rate’ goes down.  Note column three compared to column 2.

Column 4 of line ‘Regular General’ shows ‘TAX LEVY’ increased (but the tax rate is still 8.10000).

Why is it showing increased tax dollars: The regular general levy for cities must be at 8.1 before the supplemental levies (such as FICA and IPERS) may be used. To calculate whether or not the ‘TAX LEVY’ increased or decreased compare column 3 to column 4 for each individual tax levy (column 1). In this example: Column 5 ‘Annual % CHG’ reports that the combined ‘TAX LEVY’ increased a little more than 2.87% and the tax rate increased from 12.42 dollars per $1,000 of taxable valuation to 12.45 dollars per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

Summation: to decide whether or not the TAX LEVY has increased, decreased or remained the same: compare column 2 Current Year Certified Property Tax 2020-2021 of the NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING- CITY OF ATLANTIC – PROPOSED PROPERTY TAX LEVY to column 4 Budget Year Proposed Maximum Property Tax 2021-2022; or compare column (A) on current year ending June 30, 2021 Adoption of Budget and Certification of City Taxes (page 3 of attachment) with the column headed Request with Utility Replacement (page 2 of attachment).

(Radio Iowa) – Fundraising is underway to help refugees settle in central Iowa this year. The U-S Committee for Refugees and Immigrants field office in Des Moines is expecting an influx of refugees in the area after President Biden promised to increase the refugee cap. Even though he hasn’t signed the determination yet, the state should still prepare, according to Kerri True-Funk, the committee’s Des Moines director. “Due to the pandemic, things have been a little bit slow,” True-Funk says, “but we are anticipating as vaccination efforts worldwide are being undertaken and the determination ceiling goes up, that we will get new arriving refugee families.”

True-Funk expects they’ll help settle more than last year’s 75 refugees in central Iowa, but doubts they’ll reach the record of more than 660 refugees set in 2016. “But I do anticipate that, especially as vaccinations roll out and mitigation efforts continue, that the numbers will start to come up,” she says. The organization is raising money to buy mattresses for the expected refugees and ten-percent of the goal has been met so far.

(reporting by Kassidy Arena, Iowa Public Radio)

The CAM School District’s Board of Education, Monday, opted to discontinue a Business Manager with the Atlantic School District for the upcoming school year, and instead share the position with the Nodaway Valley Community School District. The agreement, effective for the 21-22 School Year, is a 50/50 cost share, at $58,328.

Also during their meeting, Monday, the CAM School Board set April 12^th at 6:30-p.m., as the date and time for a Public Hearing on the 2021-22 School Calendar, which has the first day of school set for Aug. 23^rd 2021, and Graduation as May 25, 2022. The hearing will take place in the Superintendent‘s Office.

The Board also approved a 21 member school facilities committee, which will be tasked with reviewing the discussion process that began over a year ago, with architects. The committee will set the dates for community meetings on the facilities project. Community input will be received during the process to help the district in make sound decisions for students’ future education.

Police in Creston, Tuesday afternoon, arrested a man at his home, on a Union County warrant. 20-year-old Montell Mario Rivers was taken into custody on a warrant for Child Endangerment with Serious Injury. Rivers was being held in the Union County Jail on a $10,000 bond.