The Iowa Band Law marches on

It's a combination of arcane municipal finance and Iowa history.

So, for me, too much to resist.

I was flipping through the city of Cedar Rapids' 2016 budget, for fun, when I came across a reference to a 'band levy.” It turns out Cedar Rapids property taxpayers pay $0.01667 per $1,000 of taxable valuation to cover the cost of the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band.

It's expected to raise roughly $99,000 in FY 2016.

That's thanks to something called the Iowa Band Law. I can spot a Hickenlooper at 20 paces and tell a Clyde Herring from a red one, but I've never heard of the Iowa Band Law.

So I turned to Google, where I learned there's even an 'Iowa Band Law March,” composed by the great Karl King.

King, who led the municipal band in Fort Dodge to fame, was a 20th-century national superstar of marching band composition. It would be like Mumford & Sons coming to Iowa this summer to write a tune about commercial property tax relief.

When is the last time anyone wrote a tune about a bill? 'Pump Up the Gas Tax,” perhaps? 'I Left My Heart in the Standing Unlimited Appropriations Bill?” Not likely.

The 'Iowa Band Law March” is a greatest legislative hit.

'When we start every municipal band season, the first piece we play is that,” said Steve Shanley, who conducts the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band.

It's entering its 65th season, with 19 concerts planned at parks around the city this summer.

It will be 94 years on Tuesday since the band law gained final approval at the Statehouse. It passed in the House and then cleared the Senate, by a vote of 38-4 on March 16 that year. But it still had to jump a procedural hurdle and wasn't sent to Gov. Nathan Kendall until St. Patrick's Day.

Its patron saint isn't Patrick, but Maj. George W. Landers, a military band leader who adopted Clarinda as his home in 1909. It was Landers, a nationally regarded bandmaster in his own right, who led the band law march to the Statehouse. King and others also lobbied for the bill.

According to the Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, hundreds of towns took advantage, and 33 states followed Iowa's lead.

The bill allows cities to levy a small band tax and provides for a referendum on the issue. It originally was aimed at cities with populations below 40,000 souls. I haven't been able to track down exactly when larger cities got into the act.

Iowa's hazy summers have been much more musical ever since, although the ranks of municipal bands have dwindled. I think Landers' idea still is a good one nearly a century later.

'I feel like the best thing it does for the community is provide this sort of big opportunity throughout the summer for families and for young kids to go see concerts in a welcoming environment,” said Shanley, who watched concerts in Bowman Woods Park as a kid. 'If they get a little noisy, it's not the end of the world.”

Agreed. But how do I get the 'Iowa Band Law March” out of my head?

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com.

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