As the Greene County School Board is expected to set a public hearing at tomorrow night’s meeting to accept bids for the new high school and career academy project, one piece of the financing is also in the hands of the state legislature.

The Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) one-cent sales tax is used by public school districts in Iowa on infrastructure or property tax relief. The total price for the school district project is $35.48-million with $4.5 million coming from SAVE and the voter-approved Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) funds. However, the sunset date for SAVE is set for 2029.

District 24 State Senator Jerry Behn says there’s been talk of eliminating the sunset date for SAVE, which he’s not in favor of doing, but he’s willing to extend it. He explains why he doesn’t want to eliminate the sunset altogether.

“I don’t like to see at anytime where buildings are built if they’re not truly necessary. Don’t misunderstand this at all, I’m not suggesting that you don’t need anything in Greene County, you may. And it sounds like that’s what you want to do and I’m fine with that. But we want to be sure that those dollars are spent where it’s appropriately needed. And when it’s not needed it gets back to the property tax savings that was promised.”

Behn believes the SAVE sunset extension will be a topic of discussion during this year’s session. He also serves on the Senate Education Committee. You can contact him to voice your opinion on the SAVE sunset extension via email at jerry.behn@legis.iowa.gov.