The Iowa League of Cities is concerned over legislation that could be coming to the floor as early as this week that would eliminate the replacement claims to cities, counties, and schools, commonly referred to as the backfill.

The backfill originated in 2013, after the State Legislature decided to decrease commercial property taxes. Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson says the League of Cities is upset about the potential abolition of the backfill, as the Legislature will have gone back on its word. “This is something that when they passed this rollback, they stood there and they promised, over and over again, that they would provide this backfill, it would always be there, it’d be sustainable. And now, five years later, it seems that everybody’s forgotten about that promise. So that’s very disappointing, disheartening, and a little scary for some communities.”

Peterson adds, he feels Perry is largely in a good financial situation, but it would still amount to over $80,000 in cuts from the budget. $41,000 of that would be made up from the City’s General Fund, but the rest would be made up by an increase in special levies. The League of Cities emphasizes that there’s still time to contact your local legislators to let them know your feelings on the backfill, but time is rapidly running out for action.