Mason City council approves Fiscal Year 2023 budget

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City this week approved the budget for Fiscal Year 2023. The tax rate for Mason City property owners will slightly decrease to just under $14.00 per $1000 assessed valuation.

Councilman Paul Adams says when compared to similar-sized cities in Iowa, Mason City’s tax rate is among the lowest. “Basically rural centers of 25,000 population roughly around the state in a more rural area — Mason City, Clinton, Burlington, Marshalltown, Muscatine, Ottumwa and Fort Dodge — Mason City by far has the lowest city tax rate amongst that group of what you would call rural centers around Iowa. The average of the other six is basically $17.23, and we are just over $3 lower than that.”

City finance director Brent Hinson thanked the council for approving a plan that would allow excess funds collected as part of the general reserve fund to be earmarked for projects that the city should no longer be using bonds for.  “What we’re really hoping to do as we discussed during the budget process is get away from bonding for everything except for those really long-term improvements or those really big projects, and for the smaller projects use a ‘pay as you go’ methodology. We think that will help us keep that rate down in the future and hopefully keep everything improved in the way it needs to be.”

Hinson says the city is in a very good position in terms of the tax base.   “If you take a look at our tax base compared to our competition or our fellow cities, we compare very favorably. That’s part of how we are able to have a lower tax rate for everybody is that higher level of taxable valuation. That’s the reason we do economic development, that’s the reason we’re pursuing all these projects, not just the jobs, not just the community vitality, but it also really is a good deal for all the taxpayers of the city as well.”

The council unanimously approved the budget, which starts on July 1st.