Decorah Winneshiek County Taxes,Costs, too HIGH?

Decorah Winneshiek County Taxes,Costs, too HIGH? Debate? Is Decorah Iowa, Winneshiek County becoming to expensive to live in? Home owner taxes have almost doubled. Winneshiek county too costly?

05/07/2017

Did everyone get their property tax increases in the mail? Enjoying the hike in taxes? Has your property tax almost doubled in the last ten years?.. Has your water bill also doubled?

01/19/2017

CUT FIREMEN? Leave open firemen position not filled? After so many nice big raises for everyone. The latest discussion is not refilling an open position coming on the Fire Dept. Budget getting tight after so many nice big raises for City employees?. Decorah News online has the latest. Appears they FORGOT to inform the Firemen or Fire Dept people of the meeting. first on decorahnews.com: Will the Decorah Fire Department's full-time paid staff be cut?
Posted: Wed, Jan 18, 2017 5:07 PM

Decorah City Council members have been asked to consider whether the Decorah Fire Department needs to have three full-time employees or could operate with two.

One of the current Decorah Fire Department employees will be retiring in July. City council members met Friday morning, January 13th, as a personnel committee to discuss whether the future vacancy should be left unfilled.

Notification of the meeting was not given to decorahnews.com nor to other local news media. Instead, the meeting notice was posted only on the bulletin board in the entry of Decorah City Hall. Despite the impact of the proposal on the Decorah Fire Department, fire department officials were not notified of the meeting, either.

At this point, money has been included in the 2017-2018 to pay for a third full-time Fire Department employee. However, the Personnel Committee has not yet made a decision on whether to advertise the upcoming opening on the department. Even though the money is included in next year's budget, it will be a separate decision on whether to spend that money.

12/26/2016

MORE RAISES? Do you have the power to give yourself big raises without anyone else s input? Should Decorah City Council members and the mayor be paid more? Decorahnews DOT Com has noted many times how this keeps happening. Without any tax payers input. Do you get to do a study to see if you need a raise?. Vs other Iowan's? Decorah Mayor Don Arendt that the pay for city council members and the mayor ought to be increased. The mayor wants to begin a discussion regarding mayor and council compensation. A survey of other, similar-sized communities in Iowa shows a range of pay levels:

(Updated figures, correcting Excel spreadsheet issues):

City population Mayor Council
Grinnell 9,218 $6,000 $2,400
Mount Pleasant 8,668 $5,400 $2,400
Denison 8,298 $6,000 $900
Decorah 8,127 $4,200 $960
Webster City 8,070 $1,440 $1,200
Creston 7,834 $12,000 $3,600
Clear Lake 7,777 $7,500 $2,500

MEDIAN OF 36 SIMILAR CITIES: $4,750 Mayor, $1,200 Councilperson

12/11/2016

Chad Bird- Talking about the new approved tax. The State has already raised a 10 cent gas tax. I read Decorah has its own 5 cent gas tax.. Now a Black Hill new, ENERGY TAX. .. Has the City of Decorah spent to much on empoyee raises? Now needs a new tax? It appears this new tax will also effect non profit businesses. . Black Hills Energy franchise fee approved
Sarah Strandberg, News Editor
Wednesday, December 07, 2016 10:08 AM
The third and final reading to establish a 1-

percent franchise fee on the city’s natural gas

provider, Black Hills Energy, was approved by the

Decorah City Council Monday night.
Council member Chuck Lore cast the only

dissenting vote. City code requires three

readings of ordinances before they can be

adopted.
The franchise fee will be passed on to customers

and will replace the one-cent local option sales

tax on their bills.
At the Council’s previous meeting, Lore said he’s

concerned the fee would be increased to the

maximum 5 percent allowed. The Council would have

to approve a new ordinance to change the

percentage, according to City Manager Chad Bird.
Black Hills Energy officials have said there are

now about 30 communities the utility serves that

impose franchise fees of 1 to 5 percent.
Bird said the net result for the residential

utility customer is the same, however entities

that are sales-tax exempt will be required to pay

the franchise fee. He told the Council he’d been

contacted by representatives of three non-profit

organizations about the fee and once the process

and procedures for implementing it were

explained, they had fewer concerns about it.
In once instance, when the non-profit looked at

their Black Hill’s natural gas bill, they

determined their franchise or service fee would

amount to an increase of less than $1,000 for the

year.
“They were less concerned knowing what the dollar

amount would be,” Bird said.
Bird also explained the funds raised by the

franchise fees will be earmarked for the city’s

sidewalk program and improving connectivity

within the city.
“They (non-profits) see the use of these funds as

having a direct community quality-of-life

benefit,” Bird said after Monday’s meeting.
“I’ve asked the Council to be very specific on

how the money is going to be used. It’s important

for municipalities to look at different revenue

sources so we’re not so dependent on property tax

revenue every single year,” Bird said.
“As we continue to see pressure on property tax

legislation, for municipalities to be so

dependent on that is difficult and probably not

prudent. We need to look at alternative revenue

sources to help strengthen the city’s overall

financial position.”

Alliant
At its Nov. 8 meeting, the Council voted 5-2 on

the first reading to approve a franchise renewal

with Alliant Energy that also included a 1

percent franchise fee. The agreement is typically

renewed for 25 years, but at the urging of a

group of citizens proposing the city consider a

municipal electric utility, only a five-year

agreement was approved with Council members Lore

and Gary Rustad voting against it.
Bird told the Council at that meeting that based

on conversations he’s had with Alliant

representatives, the utility would not consider

anything less than a 15-year agreement. The

second reading of the Alliant franchise agreement

was postponed until city officials could discuss

the matter with Alliant.
After Monday’s night meeting, the Council’s

utility committee scheduled a meeting with

Alliant representatives for Monday, Dec. 19,

prior to the Council’s regular meeting

11/16/2016

A recent new article now GONE. Was just mentioning more raises for city and or country Dept Heads.. The Decorah City Council has approved a proposal to raise City Manager Chad Bird's salary by $18,197 starting July 1st. Is our tax dollars being properly spent?. The latest article that disappeared. Wanted to also do comparisons to other Iowa towns. To see if Decorah Dept heads were being paid fairly.. If I am not mistaken. Most of the country is getting cut BACKS..Any thoughts about possibly higher wage increases, for more of our public workers?.. Is your wage increase keeping up with inflation?.. Water rates have almost doubled since 2008...Are you being forced to shop for deals online?.. Vs shopping locally?.. Because your wages are NOT keeping up?.. Any Thoughts?

11/16/2016

What do people think of the idea for a new Elementary School?. Did the school north of us actually need to close?. Will this add an extra tax burden to Decorah residents? Do you feel like no one asked you about any of this?. Home owner taxes have basically doubled in the last 8 or so years. Roughly $20,000 million was spent up grading the high school.. Was all of the upgrades needed?.. Any Thoughts on this?

09/18/2016

Is Decorah, Winneshiek county Iowa, becoming to expensive to live in? Are wages increasing to keep up with the cost of living?.... Taxes have almost doubled in the last ten years... Which has increased revenue...Water and sewer rates jumping.. And so much more... With Revenue increasing with house tax values... Are you seeing a big increase in county or city services ...... Is there enough affordable housing?.. Can you afford to buy a Decorah home with current prices and wages of the area?..

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Decorah, IA
52101

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