The City of Harlan will be conducting a housing study in conjunction with SWIPCO (the Southwest Iowa Planning Council. In a regular City Council meeting Tuesday, SWIPCO representative Courtney Harder gave a presentation on the options for the housing study. In her presentation, Harder said “The proposal is pretty much specific to outlining how your community would be able to support the new development of rental units and at what rate. We would also do some census based information for you and look at the assessor side as to what kind of housing needs you have in your community. We would also potentially outline any other needs that we may see as well. Are you meeting the needs for your low to moderate income? Do you have something in between for families? Do you have a lot of high end homes? What kind of ranges you have available.”

Along with the targeted study, SWIPCO gave the council another more in depth option for the housing study. Harder said “We are going to instead of looking at just the assessor side and census develop your housing needs; we are also going to go into the community and do a drive by and survey every home in town. We have a couple people who drive through town and give an excellent, good, fair or poor rating on every house in town that way you have an idea where your areas of towns that need the most assistance are. We’re also going to have four community input meetings so that you have a little bit more input not just from your housing board but community members. We will have a conditions map and all that stuff to keep in your plan.”

The final option would include everything in the targeted study and broad assessment along with a comprehensive housing plan. Harder says “Option B is the comprehensive study, the same study we did for Atlantic. This is going to be all in compassing everything above. It’s going to have a formal public hearing process and adoption process through the planning and zoning committees. It will cover all the wide range of housing issues including code enforcement, permitting, housing density, design standards and anything else we can come up with.”

After much discussion, the Harlan City Council approved a motion to accept the proposal for the SWIPCO housing study in phases. The first phase is to do the base targeted study at the cost of $4,500 and afterwards SWIPCO will do both in depth studies, the broad assessment and the comprehensive housing plan. Each option will cost the city an additional $1,500. Harder explained to the council as a member of SWIPCO, the city of Harlan will have opportunities for grant funding.

She said “As a member of SWIPCO you have access to our grant writing at no charge. So if you come to us two years down the road and we have completed and you say we would really like to apply for that community development housing grant, we will assist with that. Or if you have anything else that comes up that’s part of being a member of SWIPCO that we provide to you.”

The targeted housing study will take two to three months to complete and the whole housing study will take approximately six to seven months to complete.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

Iowans could be paying less than three dollars a gallon for gasoline before the end of the year, according to a report from Triple-A-Iowa. Spokeswoman Gail Weinholzer says crude oil prices are falling, stockpiles are rising and refineries have already made the change from summer to winter fuel blends.  “Everything is boding well as far as the switchover having been completed,” Weinholzer says, “demand being reasonably met by supply, the hurricane season is over in the Gulf (of Mexico).”

Iowa’s current statewide average is three-11 a gallon. Prices may fall between ten and 15-cents a gallon before December is out, she says, and prices may remain at the lower level for much of the winter. Weinholzer says, “Certainly, there’s no reason to expect prices to do any sort of significant increases between now and the early part of spring.” This isn’t anything out of the ordinary, she says, as gas prices typically reach a low for the year in mid-December.

“I would expect prices to remain relatively low, depending of course on the wild cards that we always talk about: the political situation in the Middle East and the overall world economy as far as the recovery from the recession.” While Iowa is averaging three-11 a gallon, that’s 14-cents cheaper than the national average. Prices in Davenport are the lowest in the state, averaging $2.94, while Waterloo has the highest prices at $3.15.

(Radio Iowa)

Governor Terry Branstad says he and his staff are still evaluating the numbers, but he may propose that legislators make a major change in the state’s income tax in 2014.  “We have toyed with the idea of looking at some changes in the income tax,” Branstad says. Branstad wants to wait until a panel of financial experts sets its estimate of overall state tax collections later this month and then start drawing up state budget plans that outline alternatives.

“We need to make sure that we have the resources to meet the obligations that we’ve made,” Branstad says. “The property tax relief and the education reform — those are phased in over the next several years and it’s going to require state resources in order to replace property tax and state resources for the teacher leadership legislation that we passed last year.” Branstad envisions a two-track state income tax system that would set up a new “flat or flatter” state income tax or let Iowans file their income taxes under the current system.

“But we have not got a specific proposal developed yet and hopefully by the time we unveil the budget in January we’ll be in a position to make a recommendation,” Branstad says. Iowa’s current income tax system has nine rates, with a top rate of nearly nine percent. “For people that are not familiar with the Iowa tax structure, that just look at some chart and then they see, well, gosh, Iowa is way up there. You know, California, Hawaii and they see Iowa like third or fourth,” Branstad says. “They’re not really looking at the effective rate.”

Iowa’s income tax rates higher when compared to most other states because Iowa offers a deduction that’s offered in only five other states. That deduction allows Iowans to subtract their federal income tax liability from their income before calculating their state income taxes.  “We don’t want to erode federal deductability,” Branstad says, “and that’s why we’re saying: ‘Give ’em the option.'” By giving taxpayers the option to file their income taxes under the current system with that major deduction or under a new system with lower and flatter rates, Branstad might avoid the firestorm he faced from his fellow Republicans in the late 1980s when he proposed doing away with that deduction.

Iowans for Tax Relief, founded and financed by a former Republican legislator, has long opposed getting rid of that deduction.  “Our overall goal is to reduce the tax burden and make Iowa more competitive and we want to look at the best way to do that,” Branstad says. “And we want to do that respecting how strongly Iowans feel about having a tax on a tax.” Branstad briefly talked about a “flat or flatter” state income tax during an appearance at the Westside Conservative Breakfast Club in Urbandale, then expanded on the subject during an interview with Radio Iowa and The Des Moines Register.

(Radio Iowa)