In the November 3rd General Election, Tama County voters will choose whether to retain the current 5-member Board of Supervisors, or decrease the number back to 3. In November 2022 the vote to increase the Board to 5 was approved by 3,868 YES votes (62%) as opposed to 2,285 NO votes cast against the measure (37%). This vote gave all Tama County residents better representation in our local government.

Comments have been made that having only 3 Supervisors will save Tama County money. But will it??? In one of the first meetings of the newly elected 5-member Board of Supervisors (sworn into office January 2025), I was shocked to learn that they were facing a budget deficit in the General Basic Fund of -$950,000 (in the hole by nearly a million dollars). The budget these 5 Supervisors inherited was scheduled to spend almost $1 million more than expected revenue for the fiscal year. Was anyone aware there was a problem of this magnitude? The newly sworn in Board had only a few short months to take steps to address and rectify this negative balance situation they found themselves in. The 5 Supervisors worked very hard and spent many hours working to reduce and balance the budget before the next fiscal year. After finalizing this amended budget, the Supervisors commented that this was the “only balanced budget” the county had realized going back in history for years. There were many hard decisions to make, and they called upon department heads to assist in finding ways to reduce the budget to save money. It is important to note that they did not raise tax levies, but actually cut or left the levies unchanged for the first time in many years.

Our newly elected 5-member Board of Supervisors immediately went to work in identifying the issue, fixing the problem, and moved forward without placing blame. They worked diligently to stop and reverse the overspending. One Supervisor commented that “we’ll do what we need to do and we’ll come out better.”

Please Vote NO on reducing our county leadership to 3 Supervisors. I strongly support maintaining our current 5 Supervisor Board to lead Tama County.

Linda Moeller, Buckingham