The Iowa Legislature will give Des Moines and West Des Moines, along with other Polk County cities, another shot, or as many as it takes, at passing a local option sales tax, this time without asking their neighbors for permission.

Tax reform legislation passed over the weekend has “decoupled” cities that share a border in Polk County, a fact of law that has helped to hobble efforts to add a penny to the 6-cent state sales tax and use the extra revenue for local purposes such as maintaining streets and sprucing up parks.

“This has been our top priority for 10 years,” West Des Moines Mayor Steve Gaer said. It could take some time to determine the overall impact of tax reform legislation on cities and counties, but gaining the right to vote within cities’ boundaries on the local option sales tax is a win, he said.

“We’ve been advocating for this since I was elected mayor in 2007,” Gaer said. 

State law had declared that cities with contiguous borders must vote as a block on whether to implement the local option sales tax. 

There are 10 such cities in Polk County, and in March a mere three — Des Moines, West Des Moines and Windsor Heights — approved the tax.

Last fall, voters on the Dallas County side of West Des Moines were part of a countywide vote that overwhelmingly approved the local option sales tax. Gaer has been presiding over a split city as a result. Beginning July 1, the tax will be charged at Jordan Creek Town Center, for example, but not at Valley West Mall, also in West Des Moines.

Rep. Peter Cownie of West Des Moines credited passage of the language that no longer requires contiguous cities to vote as a block to the spirit of tax reform that pervaded the Legislature this year.

“This is the first time we have been able to do tax reform in a generation,” Cownie said.

The contiguous cities requirement on the local option sales tax “was an inequity in the law,” he said.

Cownie noted that the stage was set for the amendment last year, when the House Ways and Means Committee, which he chairs, approved language to strip the contiguous cities requirement from the law.

The new law requires cities to provide a 50 percent property tax reduction from the revenues generated by adoption of a local option sales tax. In the March vote, both West Des Moines and Des Moines had promised voters they would do just that, with West Des Moines planning to reduce the property tax levy by 74 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation and Des Moines planning to cut the levy by 40 cents.

When the measure failed countywide in March, Des Moines lost out on a potential $38 million in extra revenue and West Des Moines nearly $7.2 million, according to figures from the Iowa Department of Revenue that were based on 2016 total sales tax revenue.

The amendment is for local option sales tax votes that occur after Jan. 1. The county board of supervisors can call for a vote within a city after receiving a motion from a city council or a petition signed by registered voters and equalling 5 percent of the voters in the previous general election.

Jen Schulte, government relations director for the city of Des Moines, said it is too soon to know when the issue might be put before voters.

“Council will need to decide what makes sense for the city and the constituents they serve,” Schulte said. “Additionally, while the city is now independent, they will need to be mindful of the suburbs’ and county’s intentions as well.”