In this letter, as a City Council member, I will not ask you, my fellow citizens of Marshalltown, to vote a certain way in the election today to renew the Local Option Sales & Service Tax. However, as a citizen of Marshalltown, I will be voting NO. Following are my reasons for voting NO.

In the flier we all received from the City, there are a few half-truths that should be clarified. First, the flier states that “a NO vote will discontinue collection of a 1 cent local sales & service tax effective July 1, 2025.”

This is false. A NO vote will defeat this Ballot Language today, however, we have the opportunity to vote again in future elections before July 1, 2025. I am not a fan of scare tactics and believe in full disclosure.

The flier goes on to state “if there was no contribution of LOSST, the property taxes on a house with a $100,000 taxable value would have increased $392 for Fiscal Year 2025.” Again, a scare tactic intended to make you think your property taxes will increase with a defeat of this measure today. Again, we have more opportunities to vote on a better plan before the next fiscal year.

Another point of contention within the flier is “75% Property Tax Relief, which is one of the highest percentages allocated in Iowa communities.” Sounds great and it is true. However, this statement alone does not take into consideration that other cities may not need to offset property taxes as much as Marshalltown due to having a lower property tax in the first place. This part of the equation was never investigated to my knowledge.

One of the biggest misnomers is that 100% of the tax raised, currently 78%, goes to property tax relief. This is partially true, as I believe most taxpayers think that 100% goes to property tax relief every year in the year it is collected. To my knowledge, the City has never “zeroed” out the account and holds back some of the money every year. I will leave it to you to do your own math as to what you could have saved each year.

My other concerns are the change in percentages from 78/22% to 75/25% and the change to no sunset clause. If the vote today passes, this ballot language and these percentages are most likely here to stay.

I will close with a couple of questions to all of my fellow citizens. Who believes that the Local Option Sales & Service Tax should be used to balance the General Fund budget every year? Isn’t this like using money from your Christmas Savings Account to help you pay your monthly bills?

We can do better. I know we can. I am voting NO today with the belief we, as a community, can work together to come up with a better way to use this money. Please understand, I believe in collecting the one percent tax. I just think we need to tighten the language, define specific uses, and have a set time limit.

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Gary Thompson is an at-large Marshalltown city councilor.