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Last Friday wrapped up a build week at Walnut Crossing in Waukee with 400+ volunteers (in that week alone) helping bring a 48 workforce housing project to life.

The most touching part of the celebrations for me was to hear a future homeowner standing with her family and speak to the growth her kids are experiencing in our Waukee Community School District.

She noted with tears of joy that despite living in our community for the past six years without this project, her and her husband would've had to move the family.

Habitat CEO Lance Henning thanked our school district for supporting this initiative from day one. As an advocate for workforce housing and board member, I was so excited to see so many in our community and beyond come together to help people who make Waukee work also be able to live here.

I am thankful for the leadership from Mayor Clarke, for Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity and so many sponsors like the Foundation at Principal Financial Group for the support.

Sincere thanks to Superintendent Dr. Buck and CFO Enfield for their steady leadership, and to our Waukee community for your advocacy. Protecting our kids' education while lowering the overall tax rate by $0.26 per $1,000 is exactly the kind of stewardship our taxpayers deserve.

Update: The Iowa House unanimously passed HF 2791, which will directly address the property tax valuation error that is impacting our District.

This bill gives school districts flexibility in situations like ours, where a significant and unexpected valuation change occurred after the budget was certified. Specifically, it allows us to access cash reserve levy funds sooner than otherwise allowed to help cover gaps created by our $2.3 million revenue loss this year.

Importantly, we will offset the cash reserve levy by reducing our management levy, and we will lower our overall tax rate by $0.26 per $1,000 of valuation.

We’re grateful to Rep. Kenan Judge, the School Administrators of Iowa (SAI), Urban Education Network (UEN), and Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) for their support, and especially Rep. David Young for bringing it forward. 👏