Ringgold county will be cutting some $250,000 from their budget for the coming year after a decision early this week from the State Appeal Board following a budget appeal by a number of county residents.
The State Appeal Board issued its ruling Monday, May 3, following a hearing held in Mount Ayr April 22.
After a review of the information gathered for the appeal, the appeal board ordered the county to reduce the general supplemental fund property tax levy by “$1 per $1,000 of assessed value of taxable property.”
Items paid for from the general supplemental fund include FICA, IPERS, employee insurance, election functions and emergency management.
“By decreasing the resources of the general supplemental fund, which has limited uses under the code of Iowa, rather than the general basic fund, the county retains greater flexibility in the use of its resources,” the order said.
The order let stand the $1 increase in the general basic tax rate that the county had sought, which goes beyond the statutory maximum of $3.50 per $1,000 of taxable value.
The order reminded the county that copies of the proposed budget must be available at no charge to the public and directed the county to refund Kevin Kilgore and any other taxpayer who paid for a copy of the budget to be reimbursed for the copies.
The basis for the decision, according to the order was that “the Ringgold county board of supervisors had significantly increased estimated ending fund balances, which resulted in a significant increase in the General Basic and Supplemental Fund property tax levies.”
According to the latest budget proposal, the ending fund balance for the county will have slipped from $2,186,383 at the end of the 2008-09 year to $1,563,041 for the proposed budget year of 2010-11 without the decrease in property tax.
“The county did not adequately justify the full amount of the increased estimated ending fund balances and property tax levies,” the appeal board found. “The increase in property tax levies of $2 per $1,000 of the assessed value of taxable property appears to be excessive and the county should gradually increase property taxes.”
With the ordered changes, the levy for urban areas will be $8.76 per $1,000 taxable valuation and the levy rate for rural areas will be $12.69 per $1,000 taxable valuation, down $1 from what had been sought.
The countywide levies will raise $2,084,182, rural only levies will raise $770,777 and the utility replace excise tax will be $95,434. This compares to $2,322,715 for the countywide levy, $770,777 for the rural only levy and $103,564 for the utility replacement excise tax in the budget estimate originally offered.
The supervisors and county auditor Laurie Greenman were reviewing budget figures to see where the cuts in the projected spending in the General Supplementary Fund can be made.
“Many of the expenditures are ones over which the board does not have a great leeway in changing,” auditor Greenman noted.