WAUSA – Members of the Lincoln Township Board want to be transparent with the public and explain why there is a budget authority question on the May 14 primary election ballot for registered voters to approve.
Each year, board members – currently Tim Johnson, Chris Carlson and Steve Kumm – must go through a tax asking and levy request to fund the operations of the township. Without that process each year, the township would not have funds to maintain and plow snow off its roads, fund the Lied Lincoln Township Library in Wausa and provide other various services.
The 2024 ballot measure would allow the board to go through the tax asking and levy request for the next five years without having to hold a special budget hearing each year.
The reason board members would like that option is over the last few years, they have had difficulty getting the required 10 percent of the township’s registered voters to attend the annual budget hearing.
If one year, the township – which includes the community of Wausa – would not get the required 10 percent attendance, the board would not have the asking authority for the funding needed to operate the township.
The tax levy on the ballot says “not to exceed 13 cents per $100.00 of taxable valuation” whereas the board’s 2023-24 budget request was $102,000, which is 8.25 percent.
Board members set it at 14 percent in order to give the township flexibility if taxable valuations were to ever go down sharply.
The board’s tax asking has been between $100,000 and $102,000 the last four budget years and its members do not expect that asking amount to go up very much, if any at all, over the next five years.
Board members are asking registered voters to go with “yes” on the ballot question, not to raise their taxes, but rather to allow the township to set the levy for the next five years without having the yearly budget hearing that the board struggles to get the required 10 percent of registered voters to attend.
The 2024 primary election ballots were mailed out to Knox County residents on April 24 to registered voters in the state’s vote-by-mail-only counties, and they are due back to the county clerk’s office in Center by 8 p.m. on Election Day, May 14.
People are asked to call Knox County Clerk Joann Fischer at 402-288-5604 or email [email protected] with any questions they may have.
