City Council reaches compromise on SSMID funding

The Decorah City Council voted 5-1 Monday night to give $7,500 to the downtown Self-Supporting Municipal Improvement District Board to help pay for projects in downtown and West Side Decorah.  The funding was necessary because an error led to property taxes not beingcollected this year for the SSMID.

Monday night's agreement has the city paying the $7,500 that the SSMID Board would have received in October from the first installment of property tax collections.  Another $7,500 in taxes would have been collected next April for the SSMID.  Under Monday night's agreement, city officials will send out letters to downtown property owners asking them for voluntary contributions to SSMID.  Around $500 in such payments have already been collected in just a few days.  The City Finance Committee will meet again next April to review how much money has been contributed voluntarily and whether the city should make an additional contribution.

City council member Rachel Vagts called the agreement "fair" and urged the city council to "just move on."  City council member Steve Matter had argued the city should pay the entire $15,000 because the city was the one making the mistake and because the city benefits from having Downtown Decorah Betterment Association raise money to pay for costs that could be the city's responsibility.  But city council member Paul Wanless argued against the spending during the Finance Committee's meeting, noting that "nobody is out that money" because of the city's mistake.

In the end, five of the six Decorah City Council members voted in favor of the compromise, with only city council member Randy Schissel opposing the resolution.