I-1 - Preliminary Official Statement - GO Bond 2024A

law by Governor Reynolds, phases out backfill payments beginning with fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2022. For cities and counties, the backfill is eliminated through annual reductions over five or eight years, depending on assessed valuation growth from 2012 to 2019. School district backfill payments will be eliminated after fiscal year 2022. Taxing authorities that are not schools, cities, or counties will have their backfill payments phased out over eight years. SF 619 also implements a tax credit for property owned by persons who are at least 70 years of age and whose annual household income is not more than 250% of the federal poverty level guidelines published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The expanded credit is available for claims filed on or after January 1, 2022. The expanded credit is exempt from the provisions of Iowa Code section 25B.7(1), which imposes a State requirement to fully fund changes to property tax credits. The legislation is anticipated to result in reduced property tax revenues as a result of the phased out property tax replacement claims and also due to expansion of the Elderly Property Tax Credit. Notwithstanding any decrease in property tax revenues that may result from the 2013 Act, the 2019 Act, HF 418 or SF 619, Iowa Code section 76.2 provides that when an Iowa political subdivision issues bonds, "the governing authority of these political subdivisions before issuing bonds shall, by resolution, provide for the assessment of an annual levy upon all the taxable property in the political subdivision sufficient to pay the interest and principal of the bonds within a period named not exceeding twenty years. A certified copy of this resolution shall be filed with the county auditor or the auditors of the counties in which the political subdivision is located; and the filing shall make it a duty of the auditors to enter annually this levy for collection from the taxable property within the boundaries of the political subdivision until funds are realized to pay the bonds in full." – 14 –