The effort’s been renewed to bond for a new school. . Let me state the problem– Everybody, including me, wants a new school, nobody wants to pay for it.

Property taxes are not a fair way to pay for the school. That’s a huge problem.

A few thoughts:

First- Tama County put in a 7 million dollar radio system that increased taxes 10% county wide, ask yourself what a 28 million dollar bond on just the STC district is going to do to taxes. That’s 4 times the debt against a fraction of the area. That’s basic math, and it equals higher taxes.

Second- everybody had a visit from the assessor over the last year, everybody got new assessments and they increased substantially. Your taxes are going up via assessment, so don’t forget that we will be seeing that in 2022, unless levy rates drop substantially.

Third- We need a solution to spread the debt of the school around evenly or to decrease the burden. It’s that simple. Fair taxation or spend/cost less.

I would propose a simple solution. Beg Iowa Premium/National Beef to help.

Iowa Premium is about to double their operation. This doesn’t mean double the employees necessarily, but doubling their processing. My understanding is that there will be a 200 million dollar expansion and upgrade there, much of it will most likely be automation. The point is– Iowa Premium has found a loving home in our district and looks to be here for the long haul. If I had any say at all in a new school I’d be absolutely begging Iowa Premium to help. Our community provides the foundation for their existence. We have embraced them with open arms. It seems to me that something could be managed to find a deal with National Beef to build us a school. If they wanted to promise to make the annual bond payment on a new school for the duration it seems their property taxes could and should be abated completely. In turn a school donation seems like a really nice tax write off every year, as well as unbelievable PR. Its seems like it would be an incredible win for both sides. Most importantly though- think of the unity it would foster in the community. The traffic is going to double going in and out, and every time someone here in the area sees a truck heading to the pack they could think to themselves, it’s worth it, because that’s what is building our new school. Everybody employed there can take a little more pride in what they are doing because they know they are part of what is building our new school. The farmers in the area would owe a huge debt of gratitude to Iowa Premium if they would shoulder the burden instead of letting it getting heaped on us. Iowa Premium is a huge part of our community now, and will be for a long time.

Iowa Premium— Can you help?

Adam Todd

Rural Tama