Mahaska Farm Bureau Hosts LOST Meeting
A few dozen residents visited the ISU extension office this past week to hear more about what a LOST ballot is, and how the funds are raised and ultimately distributed.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Understanding what the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) is, how it’s decided upon, and who decides upon it was the center of a discussion hosted by the Mahaska County Farm Bureau.
Tim Johnson, Senior Research and Policy Analyst with Iowa Farm Bureau was on hand to talk about how LOST is collected and distributed to government entities within the county, and how a ballot is brought before voters to decide upon.
In Iowa, not all communities collect LOST, examples being metro Des Moines areas and Iowa City areas, where the sales tax rate is 6%. In Mahaska County, that rate has been 7%, and was most recently utilized to help build schools. The Oskaloosa Public Library and the Mahaska County Law Center are examples of other large projects built with the one cent sales tax.
Oskaloosa collects 90% of all sales tax revenue in the county, but keeps approximately 47% of those funds, or approximately 1 million dollars. The rural portions of Mahaska County receive 39% of the LOST revenues. Those numbers are generated based upon a formula that disperses funds with the amount of property tax paid and the census. The remaining balance is then divided up proportionally between the other jurisdictions, like New Sharon or University Park.
The LOST revenue for Mahaska County is currently estimated at 2.17 million dollars.
We asked Johnson what the balance for the county would be if Oskaloosa didn’t collect the one cent sales tax. That amount would be approximately $215,000, with an estimated $155,000 being dispersed to the rural areas; with the remaining balance going to the other jurisdictions, not including Oskaloosa. That amount would be down from the approximate $840,000 now flowing into the Mahaska County budget, for a loss of $685,000 to the county budget per year.
According to Johnson, each entity can vote the tax in or out and each entity decides upon the ballot language. “Every jurisdiction votes on it separately,” says Johnson.
Oskaloosa and University Park would be exceptions to the rule, because the two jurisdictions connect with each other. “Any contiguous jurisdictions vote as a voting block.”
Oskaloosa and University Park would still be able to decide separately how they would like the money to be spent and how it is presented on the ballot, but their votes would be counted together for the approval of the individual ballots, to decide if they pass or fail.
A petition was recently submitted to the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors that called for a special election to be held, so that voters could decide if they wanted to continue with the LOST and what they wanted the money to be used for. The terms of the ballot can be different for each jurisdiction and will be decided by that jurisdiction’s voters.
That ballot language will need to be in place for voters to examine by the end of February of 2016.
At this point, the City of Oskaloosa is looking to use 75% of their LOST money on a proposed early childhood development and recreation center, and the Oskaloosa School District looks to participate to the tune of approximately $7.5 million.
The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors have thus far been the lone major jurisdiction that has balked at funding the project, with supervisors Mike Vander Molen and Mark Doland each expressing concerns about using LOST dollars that the county receives for the proposed project.
