A topic that garnered a lot of talk at the Iowa Legislature this year, but no action was taken on the state’s backfill.

The backfill was the state’s way of providing funds after implementing a system to decrease commercial property taxes to instill economic growth. Jefferson City Administrator Mike Palmer says City Clerk Diane Kennedy estimated the backfill to be about $75,000 for the next fiscal year. He adds that they took a proactive approach with the City’s budget.

“So we did not figure that into our budget, that revenue, and we did that just on purpose. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t over-stating our position on that, because we didn’t know at the time. So the money is going to be there. It’s additional revenue that we didn’t plan on.”

State Senator Jerry Behn tells Raccoon Valley Radio that there was discussion about possibly phasing out the commercial backfill program. However, the reason why there was no legislation on it this year was because cities and counties had already set their budgets for the next fiscal year. Behn gives his opinion about the backfill.

“I thought the design was that as growth occurred there would be increase in revenue. If it never gets phased out and if it never changes then all it was, was a shifting from property taxes to income and sales taxes. I think in essence, there should be local taxes to take care of local things and the income and sales taxes take care of state issues.”

Palmer believes that the backfill will eventually be phased out but their biggest protection is building up property valuation to have more funds to draw from over time.