Voter turnout for city and county measures was 10.5%, while school measures drew only 8.5%.
On September 10, 2024, twenty-one local governments held special elections with property tax measures on the ballot. Unofficial results show most of the measures passed, adding up to nearly $14 million in property tax costs. Ten of the 13 participating school districts succeeded with their public measures, and voters in both Henry and Worth Counties approved new emergency management taxes. Meanwhile, three public measures involving property taxes failed on Tuesday.
Turnout was in the single digits for most school districts in which the measures succeeded. County and city emergency management property tax decisions generated much more engagement. Statewide, the turnout for September’s special elections for city and county issues was 10.5%, while school measures saw turnout of only 8.5%.
Eleven school districts sought renewal of, or increases in, physical plant and equipment levies (PPELs), which generate local property tax dollars for infrastructure and equipment repairs. The ten measures that passed did so with collective support of nearly 80%.
Only Clarinda Community School District (CSD) voters said “no” to their PPEL proposal, which was for $1.34 per thousand dollars of valuation. In that Southwest Iowa community, 54% of the voters were against the tax increase. Interestingly, Clarinda voters had already rejected two bond issue referendums for building projects in 2023, while also defeating an earlier PPEL proposal in March, which was defeated by only six votes.
When it comes to debt service levies, two additional school district proposals were turned down by voters. Emmetsburg CSD and Van Buren CSD asked voters for increases ahead of a bond referendum scheduled for November. Both measures failed by strong margins. Emmetsburg CSD faced nearly 59% of voters’ saying NO, while 82% of Van Buren CSD voters rejected a property tax increase for debt service.
Voter turnout showed significantly higher engagement in districts where residents rejected the public measures than those in which the governments’ proposals were successful. Clarinda CSD (31.3%) and Van Buren CSD (37.3%) had the largest turnouts. All other districts, except for Emmetsburg CSM and Montezuma CSD, experienced single-digit turnout figures, with one as low as 3.5%, amounting to only 37 voters interested in voicing their opinions in that election. In total, school public measures produced turnout of only 8.5%, or 10,496 of the more than 123,000 registered voters.
All of the city and county elections on September 10 were related to county emergency management services (EMS), and each of them were successes for the government agencies. This will result in $850,000 in new property taxes in Henry County and Worth County. Five small cities within Worth County also solidly passed EMS-related property taxes. Overall, the support margin for these EMS public measures was almost 95%. Upon passage of an EMS tax, all generated revenue is put into a dedicated trust fund to be used solely for such services as ambulance transport.
Voter turnout was also high for these EMS public measures. More than 50% of Henry County voters weighed in, while Worth County cities and districts saw turnout range from about 22% in the West Worth County EMS district to more than 40% in the City of Grafton.
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