Home stretch for Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) campaign

LOST informational planned for tonight at 7 p.m. at Woodward City Hall

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Dallas County voters will choose whether to renew or, in some cities, establish for the first time a local option sales tax (LOST) thanks largely to the energy and initiative of three county residents, from left, Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson, Dawson Mayor Breanna Gonzalez and De Soto businessman Bob Greenway.

 

Thanks to nine months of steady work by a trio of activists, Dallas County residents will have the chance Nov. 7 to vote themselves a 1 percent local option sales tax (LOST). Supporters of the tax claim it gives a measure of local control to towns at a time when the Iowa Legislature’s commitment to cities and counties seems shaky.

Dawson Mayor Breanna Gonzalez, Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson and De Soto businessman Bob Greenway started their leg work last spring and eventually presented more than 2,000 signed petitions to the Dallas County Board of Supervisors in August.

Once verified by the county auditor, the petitions triggered the LOST election, and the tax-averse supervisors were also led to frame ballot language to bring before voters in the unincorporated portion of Dallas County.

Cities vary in their plans for using the LOST revenues, if the measure passes. Many but not all the towns will put a portion toward property tax relief or debt service, with investment in infrastructure and capital improvements also a common aim. To review the ballot language for each city and for the unincorporated part of Dallas County, click here.

For voters in some towns — Bouton, Dawson, Perry and Redfield — the choice will be whether to extend the LOST tax they already pay. Voters in 12 other towns in Dallas County and in the unincorporated portion of the county will decide whether to impose the 1 percent sales tax on themselves for the first time.

The LOST tax revenues are a boon to cities that collect it, according to city officials. Perry, for instance, the first town in Dallas County to pass a LOST tax, earns about $1 million annually in LOST dollars. The money funds everything from city street repairs to equipment purchases, according to Peterson, and losing the LOST revenue would open up a large hole in the city’s finances.

Dawson Mayor Breanna Gonzalez brought the LOST issue before the Perry City Council March 20, kicking off the successful petition campaign that culminated Aug. 8 at the meeting of the Dallas County Supervisors. Gonzalez said Dawson’s voter-approved 1 percent tax took effect Jan. 1, 2008 as part of the Project Destiny campaign, and the tax sunsets Dec. 31, 2017. Gonzalez is eager to see the tax extended.

The laws governing LOST taxes are complicated and while the taxes are almost universal across Iowa, their history in and around Polk County has been tortured. Project Destiny, for example, the 2007 LOST election for Dallas, Polk and Warren counties, was murdered at the polls with an 85 percent no vote.

The Iowa Department of Revenue has a useful website for questions about LOST, and a series of informational meetings on the tax are scheduled between now and the Nov. 7 election. For example, a meeting will be held Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Woodward City Hall at 105 E. Second St. in Woodward.

Perry-area meetings on the purpose and plans for LOST include:

  • Oct. 23- Perry Lion’s Club, 6 p.m., Hotel Pattee
  • Oct. 24- McCreary Community Building, 6 p.m.
  • Oct. 25- Employee Safety and Appreciation Day, 10 a.m., Perry Fire Station
  • Oct. 30- Spook-tacular, downtown, 4-6 p.m. (several locations and departments)
  • Oct. 31- Perry Public Library, 6 p.m.
  • Nov. 2- Perry Public Library, 6 p.m.

Peterson, the Perry city administrator, gave a brief presentation on LOST to the Perry City Council Monday.

Video courtesy Pegasus TV 12.

 

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