Jefferson County Supervisors propose budget with no tax increases

FAIRFIELD - The Jefferson County Supervisors approved the first reading of the 2020-2021 budget at its meeting Monday, March 2.

The budget is just under 2 percent larger than last year, and taxpayers will not see increases to their taxes. Supervisor chairman Daryn Hamilton announced there will be no change to the urban tax levy, and the rural tax levies will decline by a few pennies per $1,000 valuation.

Hamilton said the county was able to keep expenses low because it didn't have a few line items it had last year, such as $44,000 toward the speculative building that was constructed on 227th Street in 2019. But more than anything else, the supervisors were able to cut costs by painstakingly going through each budget item to see if it was truly necessary.

Supervisor Lee Dimmitt said this most recent budget session was one of the best he has been a part of in his 12 years as a supervisor.

'There were no sacred cows. Everything was on the table [for cutting],” Dimmitt said. 'We didn't make any drastic cuts, but we did make some cuts.”

Hamilton said the board started by reviewing all discretionary spending, all moneys the county 'may” give to organizations as opposed to those it 'shall” give to, according to the law. After that, the supervisors asked each department head to fine-tune their budgets based on their actual expenses from last year instead of on their anticipated expenses. This process revealed items that were not really necessary, and the supervisors removed those.

'It was a bunch of little things,” Hamilton said. 'Nothing took a huge cut anywhere. It's just that all the small things added up.”

All three supervisors said they were happy to keep allowable growth under 2 percent. The reason for that is the Iowa Legislature passed a law last session which put road blocks up for those counties wishing to increase spending more than 2 percent. Had Jefferson County sought such an increase, it would have needed to call an additional public hearing, and given county residents a chance to put the spending increase on the ballot for a special election. Had the voters struck down the increase, the county would have been forced to limit its growth to 2 percent.

'Some bigger cities haven't been able to stay within that 2 percent growth,” Hamilton said. 'That's my understanding from the Iowa Association of County Supervisors.”

The supervisors will do a final certification of the budget on March 23 to turn it into the state by March 30.

In other news, the supervisors learned that the city of Fairfield is interested in reducing the speed limit on the east edge of town, on East Burlington Avenue near the driveway to Parkview Care Center. The supervisors discussed the issue at their previous meeting, but tabled it because they wanted to wait to hear from the city. Hamilton expressed a desire to lower the speed limit from 55 to 45 at the Parkview driveway, but doing that required coordination with the city to lower its speed limit within the city limits.

In October 2019, a collision at that intersection killed two people. A vehicle was stopped on Burlington waiting to turn into Parkview's driveway. Another vehicle behind it didn't notice that vehicle was stopped, veered to miss it and drove into an oncoming car.