Johnson center lowers tax, supervisors still upset

IOWA CITY - The finger-pointing continued Wednesday over the finances of a new joint emergency communication center in Johnson County.

The board that runs the center lowered the proposed tax levy that will fund the center's operations. That levy had generated controversy earlier in the week, a situation the board said was created by the county's Board of Supervisors.

At their own budget meeting later in the day, the supervisors kept up their criticism of the communication center board, saying spending on the center was too high.

“It almost seems like a blank check,” supervisor Chairwoman Sally Stutsman said.

The center will serve all the county's public safety departments and emergency medical personnel when it becomes operational later this year.

The center is run by a seven-member policy board with representatives from the county, Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty. It had set the levy for the current year at 77 cents per $1,000 of taxable value, the same as the previous year.

That board recently said it wanted the levy at 75 cents per $1,000 of taxable value next fiscal year.

The problem occurred last budget season. The center was just coming together and didn't have a line item for operations, so Rich Claiborne, the county's budget coordinator, said he was told - he doesn't remember by whom - to put in a static dollar amount. That came out to a levy of 68 cents, but no one told him to backfill that up to 77 cents.

The problem is, the county can't do that, and no one told the communication center board that happened. The board is an independent entity and has the ultimate say over its budget.

The levy, however, runs through the county because that's the only way to implement it countywide.

The communication center board on Wednesday voted unanimously to change the proposed levy for next fiscal year to 70 cents and use cash reserves to make up the $271,000 the higher rate would have brought in.

Supervisor Rod Sullivan said he would have preferred they decreased their spending rather than dipping into reserves.

Policy board members said they were caught off guard by the opposition, in large part because no one had told them the levy had been reduced from 77 cents.

“Clearly, there was a breakdown in communication,” said Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek, who sits on the policy board.