Back in February, I wrote about the local government tax reform committee working with the Governor to create significant changes to the way our local governments do business in Iowa. They have come out with an idea on the sharing of services. Let’s have a look.

The 6 year plan calls for regions to be set up either by the existing 15 community college districts or by the 16 regional planning districts. A state board would be created. Eventually, regional leaders would emerge and would then hold a series of meetings with city and county leaders to determine which services could be shared. These community leaders would need to decide which sharing plan they would want to participate in and these proposals would end up on voter’s ballots for approval. If the communities do not approve sharing plans within 6 years, they would be penalized. These penalties would probably include not being able to raise property taxes, but the details are somewhat sketchy so there could be others. In essence, the plan would force Iowa communities to share services and penalize those who do not.

I think the obvious assumption on behalf of the committee members here is that all local governments are wasteful and are the real culprit in the rise of property taxes. One with any knowledge of what the state legislature has pulled in the last few years with regards to local governments can’t help but see this as some sort of master plan to kill off the small towns in Iowa.

A few years ago, the state legislature balanced their budgets on the backs of local governments when they essentially took away or reduced property tax credits. If that wasn’t bad enough, they did it after the governments had certified their budgets leaving them no other choice but to cut basic services. In the case of our state’s capital city, that meant lights out for many of their streetlights. We know where that ended.

Apparently, cutting and eventually eliminating those property tax credits wasn’t enough. They continue to think that local governments are wasteful and duplicitous and never get to experience first hand the kind of difficulties the legislators have in balancing a budget. “We’ve been experiencing a lack of revenue and have to deal with it, it’s time the cities take some of the cuts too,” they argue. Local governments across Iowa, particularly the dwindling small towns, have dealt with declining revenues for years. They have been creative, they have been efficient and some have already shared services to make ends meet.

Representative Bill Schickel, R- Mason City, was quoted as saying that local leaders have nothing to fear about this plan because the proposal calls for sharing. He compared it to growing up and having to share a car with his two brothers. “My brothers and I, the three of us, shared one car after we graduated from high school because that’s the only way we could afford it. We didn't consolidate what we were doing,” he said.

Maybe not, Bill, but if one of your brothers had the car, and you wanted to go somewhere, you didn’t go.