Last Thursday, Feb. 11, a joint resolution, HJR 2005, was introduced during the 2016 Iowa Legislative session. The resolution, which calls for a Constitutional Amendment to combine several of Iowa’s 99 counties, was passed through to subcommittee that afternoon. If approved, the legislature would combine contiguous counties to create new ones by Sept. 1, 2021. Carroll County Supervisor, Mark Beardmore, said because this is calling for a Constitutional Amendment, the resolution must pass two general assemblies and a vote of the people. He added he saw the handwriting on the wall for moving forward with this decades-old idea about three or four years ago when the first steps for regionalization of mental health care came about.
Beardmore said it is going to be interesting to see how the people of Iowa react to the idea. Things have changed a great deal since Iowa was formed in the 1800s and there was a need to have a county seat within a buggy’s ride away. Today, in this age of information technology, Beardmore said there is an ever-growing amount of county business being conducted without people ever stepping foot inside their county courthouse lobby. There are both positives and negatives to this proposed resolution, Beardmore said, and we need to be attentive to not only the benefits but the possible liabilities.
On the benefits side, Beardmore said that lower costs to the state are only a part of the likely reasons for consolidation.
Beardmore added that as this plays out through the rest of the legislative session, it is great that Carroll County has access to Senator Mark Segebart and Representative Brian Best at the bi-weekly Carroll Chamber of Commerce Legislative Forums. He expects that there will be a lot of questions about this resolution brought up at those forums that will provide another opportunity for county officials to stay attuned to the topic as it evolves.
