HomeMy WebLinkAboutA006 - cover letter to Council for ordinance, April 5, 1985 till 0Aulla51 000
515/239-5146
April 5 , 1985
Honorable F. Paul Goodland, Mayor
and Members of the City Council
of the City of Ames , Iowa
In re : Industrial Property Tax Exemption Ordinance
Dear Mayor Gooldand and Council Members :
Pursuant to Council direction , I have prepared an ordinance
to adopt a tax exemption for industrial real estate improve-
ments . Two decisions with regard to the form of the ordinance
need to be made :
1 . The period of time during which the exemption will be.
available
2 . The exemption schedule .
There is a statutory requirement in 427B . 1 that the ordinance
state when the exemption is available. It is not stated in
the Code of Iowa how long or short such period can be. I
suggest more than five years because major industrial projects
could require several years of lead time in planning and con-
struction. Stability and predictability is desirable. For
that reason, five years , which just matches the five year
statutory exemption schedule , is not enough . Ten years would
be more than adequate . Remember, the Council can repeal at
any time it decides the availability of the exemption is no
longer good policy.
The five year exemption schedule in the draft ordinance is
the same as in the Iowa Statute . The Iowa Statute gives the
locality the option of adopting a different schedule , but
the local schedule cannot give a greater exemption in any
year than what is provided by the statutory plan.
Before the Council can adopt the ordinance , a public hearing
after published notice is required.
Respectfully submitted,
'John R. Klaus
City Attorney
cc : City Manager, Terry Bailey