ralph watts

Cities around Iowa are increasingly instituting tax abatement programs in an effort to encourage growth, including both Perry and Adel. However, the issue of tax abatement is something on the radar of state legislators, and change could come during the current legislative session.

State Representative Ralph Watts (R) has been working so far this session to get a tax abatement regulation bill into discussion in the Ways and Means Committee. He told Raccoon Valley Radio why he opposes aggressive abatement programs like the one seen in Perry. “My concern is the abatement of property taxes affects the school funding. Probably half of your local property tax bill goes into your local school district. And if the cities continue to throw around abatements like cotton candy so to speak, that impacts your school budget and somebody has to fill that.”

According to Watts, the state is backfilling around $70 million a year because of tax abatements. The change he’s hoping to make is if cities want to abate taxes, they won’t be able to access certain tax revenues, which would instead go towards schools. “The issue of tax abatements have grown considerably across the state. And of course, somebody fills that void for the money that doesn’t go into the school district, and that generally falls on the other taxpayers that are continuing to pay taxes.”

Watts adds, he’ll continue to nurse the bill along through the various committees, and is hopeful it will be introduced to the floor some time this session. To hear more from Watts, listen to Monday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.