— Image courtesy of Beacon A screenshot of a pie chart shows the distribution of property tax money for a home in Webster City valued at just under $100,000. Rick Young, chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors, said Monday that all property owners can access this information through the Beacon portal, which is linked to the Hamilton County Assessor's page.

The Hamilton County Board of Supervisors got an earful Monday at its second levy hearing when it was castigated for its projected levy and criticized for the time the meeting was held.

Right off the bat Jim Arnold spoke for the people who weren’t there.

“They can’t be represented because you chose to have this on a Monday morning when you got a handful of retired people, a couple businessmen in here and that’s it,” he told the Supervisors. “You can have a lot more people and you should advertise on KQWC, the Freeman-Journal and put a banner right across … Superior there announcing this is what it is. Instead of having this little deal with a small, little fraction of the people in this town.”

There were 18 members of the public at the meeting.

The proposed levy, which has been published in The Daily Freeman-Journal and on every county departmental website, is not the final levy, which will be agreed upon in a public meeting that must take place by April 30, Rick Young, chairman of the Board of Supervisors said later.

In response to Monday’s criticism, he said, the board has set Saturday, April 22, for the budget hearing.

That hearing will begin at 6 p.m. It will take place in the basement conference room of the Hamilton County Courthouse, 2300 Superior Street, Webster City. The hearing is open to the public.

The county budget will be adopted once that hearing is closed. At that time, the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors will vote on its adoption.

The Hamilton County levy proposes a $6.7 per $1,000 per taxable valuation for all property owners; rural property owners would be assessed an additional $3.83 per taxable valuation on top of that, which would bring the rural property levy to $10.50 per taxable valuation.

“It’s a very confusing notice but it’s what the state is requiring us to use,” County Auditor Kim Schaa has said before about the published levy. “A large portion of Hamilton County’s increase is due to the $.30 EMS levy that was approved by voters in the November 2024 General Election.”

Prior to Monday’s meeting, Young said, “With the property tax reform implemented in the last two years, this has been one of the most anxiety-filled budget sessions we at the county have experienced in many years.

“However, owing to the fact that Hamilton County levies are already within the rates set forth by the Legislature, we anticipate little change in services provided this year. We can only speculate what will happen when levy rates and allowable valuation growth is further limited.”

Some of that limitation to which Young referred comes as result of the passing of House File 718, a head-spinning document that complicates the relationship between valuation and levies.

Supervisor April Ely, elected in November, admitted the budget process in general was far more involved that she had anticipated.

“No, I completely understand. This is not an excuse, and to say this is my first year and I will say all of us have spent tons and tons of hours just going through everything. It’s a very complicated system.

“I don’t want to be negligent and just trying to come in and hack and cut things because there’s a lot of intricate pieces with this, that certain things are connected to other things.

“For example, you know, if you have a certain budget, you have to fund that to a certain percent. If you don’t fund it to a certain percent, then another piece, that funding gets cut and I will tell you that as a group collectively we have identified some areas that we’re going to be working on throughout the next year and just we’re trying to be transparent.”

Supervisor Mary Clausen, who was also elected in November, tried to soothe the room.

“I always say we’re not spending our money. We’re spending the people’s money, you know, so you gotta give us time. We just started it. And I will say I didn’t realize there was a lot of in and out things that I needed to learn. OK. I thought I knew a lot more.”

Young said, “You’re aware that we sold the health building over here two years ago?”

The services offered there were combined and moved to the Shashi Building, the former Webster City Medical Clinic.

“It’s no secret right now that we’re looking at room out there for the Human Services people (from) down here on Superior Street and we’re looking at moving over there to combine.” Once vacant, the county could sell the Superior Street property, which is the former Bliss Cancer Center.

He added later that the county has managed to hold its health insurance costs to zero increases in the past two years. “This is the result of employees cooperating in a wellness program.”

Back at the morning meeting, a man asked: “What happens if everybody in the city says no, we don’t want it? What happens? Do we get to vote on this?”

Young replied, “Well, so elections have results and the real areas that you have elected us to make those decisions for you and so we are dealing with that, we’re trying to figure out how to cut things without cutting services, and at that point, what do you want to do without? You want to do without public health? Do you want to do without VA administration? We’ve increased that over the past three years.

“Don’t use scare tactics with me,” another man threatened.

The first man said, “I’m sorry, the question is basically if we are all against this, you guys can still put it through? We have no more say except for what happens here and we’re only on the front table rather than in the back of the table?”

“Well, what do you want us to cut?” Young asked.

“When you were running, it was all about, hey, we’re going to cut back. … It’s easy to say that, but we’re wishing that (you had been) a little more transparent in the campaign about what your obligations are and how hard it is,” someone said.

“Now a lot of people have buyer’s remorse because you really weren’t honest with them before you were elected.”

Schaa attempted to explain.

“This is the maximum level that they’re using and because of timing, this is done by March 5th. The budget isn’t completed till April 30th, so I would venture to guess that 90% of the cities, counties and schools and the state published at the max levy. We can come down, we cannot go up, but we can reduce. And just in timing; we published the max because the budget is not completed yet. I would say statewide, between assessors and auditors, we all feel that that document is not a good representation for this public.”

Assessor Brenda Loftus added, “It’s very difficult to understand.”

Clausen reiterated: “I always say we’re not spending our money. We’re spending the people’s money, you know, so you gotta give us time. We just started it. And I will say I didn’t realize there was a lot of in and out things that I needed to learn. OK. I thought I knew a lot more, but everything I come to, I say I learn a little bit more.”