Counties may levy for shortfall in state MHDD funds

CEDAR RAPIDS - State lawmakers shorted Iowa counties about $7 million in funding for mental health services last year, and county taxpayers may make up the difference.

“They're not paying what they're supposed to,” Linn County Budget Director Dawn Jindrich told county supervisors Monday.

By law, the state should distribute $88 million to counties to help reduce their property-tax levies for mental health and developmentally disabled services. But when the Legislature adopted a two-year budget cycle last year, it appropriated just $81 million for the fund.

To allow counties to cover what they've already budgeted, the state is allowing counties to raise their MHDD levies by a corresponding amount for the fiscal year starting next July 1, exceeding the usual limit.

In Linn County's case, that's $466,270 - boosting its MHDD levy, usually restricted to $8.1 million by state law, to $8.6 million. The increase amounts to 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, Jindrich said.

The levy increase will be part of the fiscal 2013 county budget up for approval at the supervisors' Feb. 15 meeting.

“We've always held up our end of the bargain,” said Supervisor Brent Oleson, R-Marion. “That's why we're in this plight.”