ISAC Update:1.24.14
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85th General Assembly, Second Session, Week Two
It was a short week of work for those at the State Capitol as legislators returned to Des Moines on Wednesday after the MLK Holiday and participating in their precinct caucuses back in their districts on Tuesday.
Progress continues to be made on ISAC’s 2014 priority/objective agenda at the Statehouse. Key meetings were held on Thursday with Iowa’s legislative leadership and ISAC Board President Harlan Hansen and 1st Vice President Melvyn Houser.
The number of bills introduced this week increased and access to those bills can be found at our tracking tool, Your feedback is essential to our work so let us know if you have any questions or concerns about any of the legislation you find on the tracking tool.
Assessor Notices
Transportation Day at the Capitol – January 29
County Veterans Visit the Capitol
Weekly Legislative Forums
County Day at the Capitol – March 12
Public Health Day on the Hill – February 4
New and Noteworthy
ISAC TIF Webinar
Spring School of Instruction Registration is Open
NACo Legislative Conference Registration is Open
NACo National Cyber Symposium Registration is Open
Assessor Notices
HSB 508 passed out of subcommittee this week and will now go to the House Judiciary Committee. The bill requires the mailing of property assessment notices and equalization order notices to individual property owners rather than publishing in an official newspaper if the valuation of an entire class of property is uniformly raised or lowered. The bill also adjusts and extends the period for filing a protest following an equalization order. The impetus for this legislation was a corporation headquarters not knowing that one of its branches in another county would experience a large increase in valuation due to an equalization order because they did not receive a personalized notice.
At the subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, ISAC expressed concern with the additional cost and labor of individualized notices for uniform adjustments to a class of property, and the effect of moving protest and board of review periods could have on the entire property tax process. Additionally, ISAC is always concerned with language that circumvents Iowa Code §25B.2, subsection 3, because it almost always means there will be an unfunded mandate. Finally, this bill would take away local control in the decision making process on how to notify property owners of changes to their assessment.
ISAC is currently registered undecided on HSB 508 while we gather input from assessors, auditors, and other county officials.
Click here to comment on assessor notices.
Transportation Day at the Capitol – January 29
ISAC strongly encourages members to attend Transportation Day at the Capitol being held this upcoming Wednesday, January 29, 2014.Representatives from highway associations and coalitions, counties, cities, development groups, and other transportation stakeholders will make the case for an increase in transportation infrastructure income to maintain and build Iowa’s roads and bridges. Click here for a tentative agenda for the day’s events.
County Veterans Visit the Capitol
County veteran affairs administrators and commissioners were among about 150 veterans, advocates, and others gathered for Veterans Day at the Capitol on Wednesday. Governor Terry Branstad and Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard Major General Tim Orr were among the speakers at the formal program. Governor Branstad used the opportunity to discuss his Home Base Iowa proposal that was introduced last week in the Condition of the State address. Among the components of the initiative are a state income tax exemption for military retirement pay and automatic granting of in-state tuition rates for veterans at Iowa’s community colleges.
Weekly Legislative Forums
Below are links to the legislative forums held throughout the state. We encourage you to attend these forums in order to interact with your local legislators and educate them on the issues that counties are facing. After you have attended any of the forums, please take the time to submit a comment to ISAC that lets us know the feedback you received from your legislator using the online legislative comment form. This assists the government relations team in their work on the Hill. We also encourage you to visit the Capitol during the session to meet with your legislators. The government relations team enjoys seeing county officials at the Capitol throughout the week and working with them to further ISAC’s 2014 Legislative Priorities.
***Please note that some of these forums are out-of-date.
County Day at the Capitol – March 12
ISAC will hold County Day at the Capitol on Wednesday, March 12 in conjunction with the 2014 ISAC Spring School of Instruction. Registration for this FREE event is currently open and pre-registration is requested. Click here for more information and to register.
Public Health Day on the Hill
Please plan to attend Public Health Day on the Hill on Tuesday, February 4, 2014. The Iowa Public Health Association is pleased to partner with Iowa Counties Public Health Association, the Iowa Environmental Health Association, the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, and the University of Iowa College of Public Health to convene this event. Click here for more information and to register. Registration is free, but requested.
ISAC TIF Webinar
ISAC will be hosting a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) webinar from 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm on Thursday, January 30. Robert Josten of Dorsey and Whitney law firm will discuss statutory and regulatory requirements and procedures that govern the Iowa Urban Renewal Law (Iowa Code Chapter 403).
Topics to be covered including time for questions are as follows:
- Statutory basis for establishing urban renewal areas, including description of property and projects
- Adoption of tax increment ordinance
- Types of tax increment obligations:bonds, internal advances, TIF rebate agreements
- Annual reporting requirements:role of Auditor related to city TIF debt; role of auditor related to county debt
- Auditor reports to cities and monitoring payments
- Treasurer responsibilities for distributing TIF revenue: determination of property from which TIF generated; determination of tax levies subject to TIF and amounts to be distributed
Click here to register for the webinar. A recording of the webinar will be available on the website following the presentation. This webinar is free to anyone who would like to attend. If you have any questions, please contact us at 515.244.7181.
Spring School of Instruction Registration is Open
The 2014 ISAC Spring School of Instruction being held at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown March 13-14, 2014 is currently open to registrations. You must register for the conference prior to making your hotel reservations through the online housing system. Please click here for all conference information and to register.
NACo Legislative Conference Registration is Open
Registration for the 2014 NACo Legislative Conference is now open. The conference is being held in Washington, D.C. March 1-5. In addition to the conference programming, ISAC plans congressional meetings with all Iowa Congressmen and Senators. Click here for more information and to register. Please contact Rachel Bennett at or 515.244.7181 for more information.
NACo National Cyber Symposium Registration is Open
Join NACo April 9-11 in Omaha, Nebraska for one and a half days of education and networking around the topics of cybersecurity. This year's symposium will follow a two-track model with targeted programming for both county officials, and IT and cybersecurity staff. NACo is offering complementary registration for all Cyber for Counties Task Force members.Click here to register. Contact Karon Harden at or 202.942.4227 with any questions.
Contact Information:
Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC)
5500 Westown Parkway, Suite 190, West Des Moines, IA 50266
Phone: 515.244.7181 Fax: 515.244.6397
This ISAC Update is being sent to all ISAC members.