(Clarinda) -- Local lawmakers and county officials are weighing in on a provision in Governor Kim Reynolds' property tax reform bill that removes election requirements for certain county offices.
During the first Clarinda legislative briefing Saturday morning, State Representative Devon Wood, a Republican from New Market, and State Senator Tom Shipley, a Republican from Nodaway, were asked about the provision in the governor's property tax bill, Senate Study Bill 3034, that would remove election mandates for the county auditor, treasurer, and recorder, instead allowing the positions to be appointed by the county board of supervisors. Page County Recorder Brenda Esaias expressed concern about the direct voice of voters being taken away from multiple county positions.
"It's going to take away your voter's rights for selection and in the end, it is not going to save any money because you still have to hold them in election for your sheriffs, your attorneys, and your board of supervisors," said Esaias. "So I don't feel like that's going to save any money and we are accountable to (the voters). This is going to take away from that."
Reynolds' budget summary indicates removing the election mandates would result in a "more efficient, professional, and responsive local government." But Wood says the provision could be viewed as redundant, since appointments are already allowed to fill vacancies for elected positions.
"If there's a vacancy, the supervisors can appoint someone to fill out the term until the next election, and that process is already allowed," said Wood. "So if that's simply the only reason that somebody is thinking that that's a good idea, they need to refresh their supervisor's code. Because in a vacancy, the supervisors are already allowed to appoint."
While acknowledging the switch could cause some problems, Woods says the bill would allow counties the option to fill the positions by appointment. However, Nodaway Mayor Pat Shipley encouraged both lawmakers to review the bill more closely over whether county supervisors would have that choice.
"Take a look at that, because the way I read that legislation, it would eliminate (elections for) those positions," she said. "They would be allowed to fulfill their current term, and after that, the Board of Supervisors would have to appoint."
Tom Shipley called the possibility of removing the election mandates a "horrible idea" and said it would open the door to more "bad things" happening. But he says, if the legislature were to move forward with it, he would prefer it be done in a similar way to how they addressed county compensation boards by giving supervisors the option to keep them or not.
"When the question was about getting rid of the compensation board, I had surveyed a lot of my counties--a third wanted to get rid of it, a third wanted to keep it, and a third didn't care," said Shipley. "Well, the easiest thing to do, (the supervisors) decide if they want to keep it. Some of my counties have, some of them haven't, and the sun comes up every day."
In addition to the governor's tax proposal, both the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate have introduced their own versions of property tax reform. The governor's proposal was the only one to call for eliminating election mandates for county treasurers, recorders, and auditors.