PROPERTY VALUATIONS
Property valuations are being sent to Plymouth County residents, businesses and industry. County Assessor Jill Renkin, in a notice to property owners, says most property owners are seeking large increases in their assessed value. Residential, agriculture dwellings, town residential, and multi-family dwellings, see increases of nearly 25%. Commercial properties are up 26%. Renken says “residential sales prices have increased quite substantially in the last two years, and values have not kept up with sale prices”. This does not mean property taxes will increase by those percentages. Renken says there have been large increases in assessed value all across Iowa. This means the rollback, a limit placed on increases in assessed value, will decrease. This will lower taxable value. The rollback will not be known until this November, and the actual levies will be determined in June 2024.
STUDENTS EXPELLED
Two Akron Westfield High School students have been expelled following an incident last week. This, after a video was circulated online, showing one student assaulting another in the high school gym.
A special meeting of the Board of Education was held Wednesday, where two closed-door hearings concerning student discipline took place. After each hearing, the board voted to expel the two students involved in the incident. The students were not identified.
The video showed two students. One approached the other, and after a brief exchange, the approaching student kicked and beat the other. .
One of the students was arrested following the incident March 30. He has been charged with willful injury. As he is a juvenile, the student was not jailed, and was released to his mother.
In a Facebook post, the school administration says it will release no further information about the incident.
EASTER EGG HUNT
The Easter bunny will make an appearance in Le Mars this morning The annual Primebank Easter Egg Hunt will take place beginning at 11 a.m. at Cleveland Park. Over 7,500 Easter eggs will be spread throughout the park. Children 2 years and under will be in the skating rink. The East side of the park will be for 3-4 year olds, while the west side of the park will be set up for kindergarten through second graders. The Easter bunny will arrive for photos at the clock tower beginning at 10:30 a.m. until the hunt begins at 11 this morning.
BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS
The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee says by this time next week, Iowans should see the details of next year’s state spending plans from House Republicans. Representative Gary Mohr, a Republican from Bettendorf, says the bills, in total, would spend about 89 percent of projected state tax revenue.
That’s about one percent higher than the spending level Governor Kim Reynolds recommended in January. House Republicans say their budget includes the extra money the legislature approved for schools in February and they are proposing more state support of nursing homes than the governor suggested. Senate Republicans have released a series of budget bills this week, but none show dollar amounts. Mohr says every legislative year is different.
April 28th is the 110th day of the 2023 legislative session. It’s a target date for adjournment, but state law does not require that lawmakers end then. It is, however, the final day legislators get daily expense money to cover things like accommodations and travel to Des Moines.
IOWA ASTRONAUT LEADS MISSION
Iowa native and former astronaut Peggy Whitson will come out of retirement and return to weightlessness next month as the first female commander of a private space mission. Whitson, who grew up on a farm near Beaconsfield, will lead a four-member crew on a ten-day mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX capsule. Already a veteran of three trips to orbit, Whitson says she and her crew have spent months training for the mission. Axiom 2 is slated to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on May 8th. Whitson says the crew plans more than 20 different experiments aboard the space station, including those related to science, outreach and commercial activities. Whitson, who’s 63, retired from the NASA astronaut corps in 2018. She holds a long list of records, including the longest time for a woman in space at 665 days.
