(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic City Administrator John Lund was under the weather for this evening’s (Wednesday’s) City Council meeting, but he pushed through, donning a mask and gloves, saying he was “miserably sick,” but nevertheless optimistic for the start of the new year, budget-wise. He updated the Council on the City’s potential health insurance renewal costs.

Lund shared some positive news with regard to the Local Option Sales Tax revenue from November and December 2023 holiday shopping season.

Overall, he said, Atlantic is running “at pace or ahead of where we were last year. That will be reflected in the revised estimate. The rest is a good-news/bad news situation. The good news is, that the Assessed Property Valuations are in.

The bad news is while Iowa lawmakers have nearly unanimously approved a massive property tax bill on both sides of the aisle, which they claim will make Iowans’ tax payments more manageable, the bill consolidates 15 existing Iowa city levies into one General Fund system. For cities, the bill which was sent to Governor Reynolds’ desk, caps levies for cities at $8.10 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. For counties, it’s capped at $3.50/$1,000. Rural services levies are capped at $3.95/$1,000. The bill also requires local governments to put any surplus revenue from assessment value growth, toward lowering their levy. Lawmakers estimate the total tax cuts to Iowa property owners at upwards of $100-million. John Lund said “The legislature got what they wanted.”

He said that’s much lower than what he was basing his budget projections on.

Lund said “That’s not a lot to work with.” The General Fund helps to pay for many city operations, including the police and fire department, ambulance service, airport, library, the pool and much more. Despite the dire news, Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett remained optimistic.

Lund added the legislatures action won’t affect on the City’s economic development projects this year.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, approved First Whitney Bank & trusts as the City’s official bank for the City Checking Account in 2024, and the Atlantic News Telegraph as the City’s Official Newspaper for legal publications in 2024.