Northwest Iowa — While candidates needed to file papers last week to run in this fall’s election, city councils and school boards also had to submit by that deadline the text of any ballot questions they wanted on the ballot.
In Sioux County, there will be ballot questions in the City of Hospers and in the Sioux Center Community School District.
The Hospers question is in regard to some proposed changes to the Hospers Library Board. The measure is known as “Proposition D.” The text reads:
“Shall Title I, Chapter 5, Article 20 of the Municipal Code of Hospers, Iowa, be amended
as follows: (a) to require at least three-fifths of the members of the Board of Trustees
of the Hospers Public Library (the “Board”) to be residents of the City of Hospers, Iowa
(the “City”); (b) to reduce the terms of each Trustee from six to three years; (c) to allow
Trustees to be appointed to successive terms; (d) to require at least one or two
Trustees to be appointed, as nearly as possible and on a rotating basis, to the Board
each year to provide for staggered terms; and (e) to require the City Clerk of the City to
serve as treasurer of the Board?”
In the Sioux Center Community School District, the question is called “Proposition E,” and it is in regard to a revenue purpose statement for the Iowa Secure an Advanced Vision for Education or “SAVE” fund. These funds are received through the one-cent sales tax, and it was formerly known as the statewide school infrastructure sales and services tax and also known as the local option sales and services tax for school infrastructure, sometimes abbreviated “SILO.” According to the Iowa State Department of Education, voters only need to approve a revenue purpose statement if there is a change requested by the school in how the funds are used.
To summarize the statement to be put before the voters this fall, the district wants to use the funds for information technology, safety and security, new facility construction and renovation, obtaining buildings and equipment, demolition, playgrounds and recreation, debt reduction, and more.
Click here for the full text of Sioux Center School District’s Proposition E.
