Hunter
05/15/25
A failure to publish a notice on North Liberty’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing last month that could have resulted in a budget shortfall got a reprieve from the Iowa Legislature.
KCJJ reported earlier this week that Iowa law requires cities and municipalities to publish notice of the budget hearing 10 to 20 days beforehand, but an e-mail to place a notice in The Gazette — the newspaper of record for North Liberty — was not sent prior to the city budget’s second public hearing on April 22. Because of that, the city would be required to base their property tax revenue on fiscal year 2025 levels, meaning a budget shortfall of $1.3 million.
The city reached out to state representatives Zach Wahls and Amy Nielsen, who are hopeful that a new amendment to a bill will pass. The Gazette reports House File 1052, which relates to cigarette and tobacco product regulations, was amended this week to include a provision that gives Iowa cities with a population between 20,400 and 20,500 that missed the deadline to certify their Fiscal Year 26 budget, until July 1 to approve the budget. North Liberty’s official 2020 census population is 20,479.
The bill was passed in a marathon session that ended Thursday morning by both chambers and sent to Governor Kim Reynolds for her signature.