Supermajority for bonds goes back to 1930s

IOWA CITY - For more than 80 years, Iowa counties, cities and school districts have needed 60 percent of the vote - as opposed to a simple majority - to pass a public bond issue that raises property taxes.

Some lawmakers have tried to change or repeal the law, but enough others don't want taxes raised without support of the supermajority.

'You get into dealing with property taxes and people get really exercised,” said Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville.

A $33.4 million Johnson County Courthouse expansion failed Tuesday, only getting 56.9 percent of the vote. Although 27,237 people favored the plan, compared to 20,611 who opposed it, the measure fell well short of the needed 60 percent.

The bond had an estimated annual tax impact of $17.38 per $100,000 of assessed value on residential property if the bond was financed for 20 years.

Other kinds of tax increases, such as the local-option sales tax voted down last week by Iowa City and Coralville voters, only require a majority in favor to pass.

The requirement that bond issues get at least 60 percent to proceed goes back to at least to 1931, when Iowa's 44th General Assembly approved Senate File 355. The measure was deemed enacted when it was published May 7, 1931, in the Walker News and the Sabula Gazette, according to the 1931 records.

Dvorsky has tried several times to abolish the law, now Code Section 75.1, because he thinks it gives outsized power to opponents of public projects.

'Constitutionally, it's supposed to be one person, one vote,” he said. 'But if you're in the 40 percent, it amounts to more than one vote.”

The Iowa Senate Ways and Means Committee passed a bill in 1996 that would have made it easier to pass bonds and reduce reliance on property taxes. Senate File 2440 would have allowed approval by a simple majority if repayment partially included an income surtax in addition to property taxes.

The proposal died without debate by the full Senate.

Johnson County officials started talking last week about uniting with the Iowa City Police Department to create a joint law enforcement center that could include a new jail. This type of project could be done without a supermajority.

Iowa Code Section 346.27 allows a municipality and a county to create a joint authority to build, buy or control a building 'for a public purpose and as a matter of public need.” The city/county authority needs only 50 percent of voters in favor to issue and sell revenue bonds to pay for the project.

However, the county is unlikely to bring another bond to voters soon, Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said. 'With the inability of our county to get 60 percent, we don't put on the ballot for now.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com