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The Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
‘Early to be losing your rag' – Commentator blasts darts star as he has MELTDOWN in just second leg
DARTS star Matt Campbell lost his temper and angrily threw at the board after busting his score. The 35-year-old had an early meltdown in his first round European Tour 8 clash against Alan Soutar. 1 Campbell was one leg up and had the perfect chance to extend his lead, requiring just 24. But he got his throw at the double 12 horribly wrong and it landed in nine. The Canadian was then left with 15 and he eyed up the three. But once again, his dart was a disaster and it fell into the neighbouring 17 to bust his score. A furious Campbell then chucked his final arrow at the board in a fit of rage to leave commentator Dan Dawson shocked. He said: "Wow. Well, you can understand why he is annoyed. But it's quite early on to be losing your rag isn't? Leg two." Fans reacted: "I love it when something like this happens as it makes me feel less s*** about how bad I am at darts." Another added: "Campbell is like us, professional players are human beings." Soutar made the most of the nightmare leg, stepping up and levelling the score at 1-1. But Campbell composed himself and went on to win 6-4. He faces Ross Smith in the second round in Leverkusen, Germany tomorrow. Stephen Bunting, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall, Jonny Clayton, Chris Dobey and Damon Heta are the biggest names in the competition.
San Francisco Chronicle
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- San Francisco Chronicle
This Bay Area beach town is clamping down on parking ‘free-for-all'
The tiny town of Bolinas on the Marin County coast, which has struggled for years to manage a crush of parking along its popular beach roads, is rolling out new restrictions that officials say are designed to balance the needs of visitors and residents — just in time for the busy summer season. Starting in June, the town will impose its first residential parking permit system for overnight use, as well as a new restriction on oversize vehicles, on the two downtown streets that provide access to Bolinas Beach. The new rules were approved in January by the Marin County Board of Supervisors, which governs the unincorporated town. One ordinance will ban non-permitted vehicles from the residential east side of Brighton Avenue between 2 and 5 a.m., to keep people from parking overnight near the entrance to the only publicly accessible beach in town. Parking will also be permit-only on a stretch of Wharf Road. A second ordinance authorizes the Board of Supervisors to prohibit vehicles longer than 22 feet from parking in designated residential areas, either at any time, or from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. 'The Bolinas Residential Parking Permit Program was designed to strike a balance between maintaining public access to parking and the need for overnight parking for residents, as well as addressing safety issues,' said Dan Dawson, interim manager for the Traffic & Transportation Planning Division of the Marin County Department of Public Works. 'The overnight restriction is to help with turnover of parking spaces to allow more people to access the beach, as well as help residents to have nighttime parking.' Bolinas, long an insular bohemian enclave, has become an increasingly popular tourist and beach destination, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a surge in outdoor recreation, according to Public Works officials. Over time, residents of the town of 1,500 who live in the downtown area have had more difficulty find street parking near their homes — a particular concern for older and disabled residents with limited mobility in a community with a median age of 65.4, where at least 56% of residents are age 60. 'There has been a significant increase in visitors to the town and the surfing community has exploded, so we have a problem with parking and traffic,' said S.B. Hirsch, who lives on Wharf Road and helped design the new rules as a member of the volunteer Resident Permit Parking Plan Committee for the Bolinas Community Public Utility District. 'This ordinance will provide some relief to residents who live on the streets leading to the beach entrances.' One major problem, she said, is that people camp in their vehicles in front of homes. 'We're trying to dampen the volume of people who camp overnight,' Hirsch said during a recent Wednesday afternoon walk down Brighton Avenue from Calvary Presbyterian Church to the beach. 'We think when there's less overnight use, people will get the message that it's not a free-for-all.' A 2023 report on the parking plan by the volunteer committee noted that the rules could be enforced 'with little, if any, impact on those who are currently unhoused living in their vehicles.' Dawson of the Marin DPW said the 22-foot limit on vehicles is not specifically an attempt to stop overnight RV camping in Bolinas, but rather is a safety measure because the long vehicles are hard for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists to see around. They also impede traffic flow in general and are often too big for the tight turns on the winding roads, he said. Brighton Avenue has 30 properties eligible for the residential permits, and Wharf Road has 17. A parking survey tallied 181 street parking spaces in downtown Bolinas; the new ordinances will affect about half. Prior to the deadline of May 1, 78 blue permit decals were ordered, each designating a vehicle for 'Bolinas Downtown Resident Parking.' Permits will be distributed by the end of May by the Bolinas Community Public Utility District, which is administering the program, said Belle Wood, the district's assistant general manager. There is currently no charge for the permits, which must be renewed every two years and are limited to two per home, with a total of 91 available. Street signs state the new restrictions will be installed in early June by the county Department of Public Works Traffic Division, according to Brent Ainsworth, government spokesperson for Marin County. The main area affected is Brighton Avenue, which runs south from the downtown core for a quarter-mile, past the temporarily shuttered post office and the tennis courts before it reaches the beach. On warm weekend days and anytime the surf is up, many visitors park there and use their vehicles essentially as a beach house. The permit requirement on the east side of the street, which is lined by homes, is intended to ease the parking jam, and the 22-foot requirement on the nonresidential side will allow for most vans but not larger campers and recreational vehicles. The short downtown commercial strip on Wharf Road, which includes Smiley's Schooner Saloon and the Bolinas Museum, will not be affected by the new restrictions. But starting at the Bolinas Gallery, as Wharf Road turns toward the shoreline, permitted parking will be in effect. Seventeen homes are in the permitting zone on Wharf Road, which already has a lengthy no-parking zone. The program will be enforced by the Marin County Sheriff's Office, which provides law enforcement for the town. Violators will be ticketed and possibly towed. Measure X, a voter-approved 2018 ordinance that regulated overnight parking on both sides of Wharf Road, Park Avenue and Brighton Avenue, was allowed to expire in 2023 because the language was found to be unclear and unenforceable by the sheriff's department. Georgia Woods, general manager of the community district, said the residential parking program was a long time in the making, 20 years by some accounts, and was 'primarily driven by residents who live along Brighton or Wharf.' The measure was intended to be loose and not ultra-restrictive and was previously approved by the California Coastal Commission, which oversees public access to beaches, and has a mandate to allow the free flow of traffic and parking. The area to be permitted is beyond the commercial area and should not be a hindrance to shoppers in the historic fishing village, Woods said. 'The hope is that these ordinances improve access to the beach and to the downtown area for everyone,' said Hirsch. 'Bolinas Lagoon (which the parking restricted area affects) has been recognized internationally as a wetlands of importance, and the residents of the streets where these ordinances will take place act as custodians for this environmental treasure.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate panel hears feedback on latest version of Iowa property tax bill
Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs and Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton talk to reporters March 6, 2025 about their property tax proposal. The updated version of this package was discussed in a subcommittee meeting May 7. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) The latest version of a property tax bill discussed by a Senate subcommittee Wednesday is still expected to go through changes before a floor vote — but Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, said it's still a priority to pass legislation on the issue this year. Restraining property taxes for Iowans has been one of Republicans' priorities for the 2025 legislative session, with leaders saying it was the top issue GOP lawmakers heard about on the campaign trail in the 2024 election. Dawson and Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, the Ways and Means Committee chairs in the Senate and House respectively, introduced their proposal making major changes to Iowa's property tax system in March as a way to address these concerns. The largest change proposed in Dawson and Kaufmann's bill was to change Iowa's local property tax system from the 'rollback' system of calculation to a 'revenue-restricted' system. 'Rollback' refers to how the state currently limits property tax growth, a system where only a portion of a residential property's value is subject to property taxes. There is a a 3% growth limit on the aggregate value of residential property in the state used to determine how much of a property's value can be taxed each year, which is used by the Iowa Department of Revenue sets the rollback rate. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The legislative proposal would remove the rollback, potentially allowing for a higher rate of property value growth that would be taxable. To limit property tax increases, the GOP bill instead proposes capping most property tax levy rates to 2% each year and limiting how much in new tax revenues local governments can collect as a way to stop property taxes from rising. Senate Study Bill 1227, the property tax bill discussed in a subcommittee meeting Wednesday, includes these changes. However, it was adjusted from the previous bill to allow local governments to exceed the 2% levy rate growth during times of high inflation, allowing for up to 5% increases as determined by increases in the consumer price index (CPI). While Nate Ristow with the Iowa Taxpayers Association praised the legislation overall, he said he was concerned about allowing higher property tax rates based on CPI. Ristow suggested 'that there be some sort of clarification and incentive in there for communities that don't fully utilize the allowable levy increase.' Dustin Miller, representing the Iowa Chamber Alliance and some local government entities said localities are 'certainly open' to talking about changes to the CPI component of setting levy rate growth limits, but said it was important these changes do not negatively impact communities that are seeing significant growth and investment. 'We want to make sure that new growth language is correct, because I think that's important from a pro-growth standpoint,' What we don't want to do is penalize those communities that are growing, and then certainly we don't want to impinge any existing deals that are out there.' More changes will be added through an amendment brought up by Dawson Wednesday — he said the amendment will create a system to phase out the rollback through a 'hybrid model' for residential properties over a period of 10 years. Another major change to the bill will come in the homestead property tax exemption. While previous versions of the bill included a $25,000 and $50,000 exemption, Dawson said the new proposal will have a property tax exemption of 25% of a home's taxable value, up to $125,000. He said this change will address concerns some local governments brought up about how the flat tax exemptions could cause problems in certain communities based on how property values differ in rural and urban areas of the state. The homestead property tax exemption based on a percentage of a home's value will provide relief for Iowa homeowners without 'taking a lot of communities' property tax base and wiping (it) out unintentionally,' he said. 'I think this gets us pretty darn near close to the end of where the whole system reform lies at,' Dawson said. Other components of the bill include shifting $426 million in K-12 schools from property taxes to the state and a property tax freeze for seniors over age 70 who have incomes at 250% or less than the federal poverty level. Emily Piper with the Iowa Association of School Boards, said she was concerned about how the bill's proposal to shift some current school levies to the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) funding stream, in cases where schools have promised to fund certain projects through bond referendums but are not able to secure funding through the state. 'Using SAVE dollars to backfill more of those additional levy rate raises a concern, because it's open-ended,' Piper said. 'We don't understand how much is going to be going there, and we want to be certain if we're doing that, that we don't inadvertently negatively impact current bonds that are out there because the revenue is not as great as had been projected.' Dawson said many Iowa school districts have cash reserves that could be used to offset lost property tax revenue and move forward with infrastructure projects. Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, said she was also concerned about this shift of education funding from local property taxes to the state in the context of the current state budget that draws on the Taxpayer Relief Fund and other reserves to make up for budget shortfalls. 'We need to proceed with caution when we say the state is going to pick up a portion of the tab (for) our schools,' Petersen said. ' So that's one area I'm really wanting to make sure that we're in a decent spot for that, so that our valuable growth and school budgets don't take a hit on that.' She said other parts of the bill, like the homestead tax credit, will 'moving in the right direction' on addressing high property tax costs,. 'This is more reform than it is relief, but I do believe it does maybe put in place some changes to formula and make it easier for Iowans to understand and predict,' Petersen said. While many agreed that changes to Iowa's property tax system were needed, some advocates and legislators have said moving on the bill during the 2025 legislative session may not be feasible. Mike Owen with Common Good Iowa, a progressive advocacy organization, said the group was registered against the bill before the amendment was introduced 'mainly because there wasn't enough time in this session to deal with something so big.' 'There still is not,' Owen said. '… We think it's good to have a new draft, but it would be best used for hearings that are helped throughout the state, throughout the summer and fall, to get a full range of views impacts of this legislation and deal with it next year.' Some legislative leaders, including Senate President Amy Sinclair and House Speaker Pat Grassley, have said they would like to move on property taxes this year, but have not committed to sending a bill to the governor in 2025. Sinclair said in April that Senate Republicans 'want it done right rather than fast.' Dawson said passing a property tax bill remains a priority before the session ends for the year. He agreed that the bill made major changes to the current system, but said these were necessary steps in order to provide substantive property tax relief to Iowans — while saying further adjustments will likely be made. 'We are trying to break the system apart and actually make this something that's more workable for all Iowans,' Dawson said. '… We have a duty to start acting for Iowans and start to reform the system.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iowa Republicans release updated property tax legislation
Rep. Bobby Kauffman, R-Wilton, spoke at a subcommittee meeting Jan. 27, 2025. He and Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs introduced an updated version of their property tax proposal following public feedback on the bill. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) An overhaul of Iowa's property tax system would begin sooner and allow local governments to collect more revenue in times of high inflation under updated legislation released Wednesday by the Republican chairmen of the Legislature's tax-writing committees. Senate Study Bill 1227, and its companion House Study Bill 328, make changes to House Study Bill 313 and Senate Study Bill 1208, the companion bills introduced in early March by Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton and Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, the chairs of the Ways and Means committees in the House and Senate. The original legislation, as well as the updated version, would repeal Iowa's 'rollback' system for calculating property taxes, in which only a portion of residential property taxes are taxable. The taxable portion is a percentage of the property's market value, calculated each year growth of statewide taxable properties and limited by an aggregate value growth of 3%. The legislation replaces the rollback with a 'revenue-restricted' system by allowing taxation of the full assessed value of a property, but limiting the amount of new tax revenues local governments can collect. Most property tax levy rates could increase each year by no more than 2% under the bill, with exceptions for new construction. While the initial proposal phased out the rollback system over five years, the new bill proposes eliminating this system of calculation immediately, in fiscal year 2027. The new version of the legislation also allows local governments to exceed the 2% limit — allowing up to 5% increases for most property tax levy rates — during times of high inflation, as determined by increases in the consumer price index (CPI). In a news release, Dawson and Kaufmann stated the property tax proposal includes a 'minimum budget guarantee to provide small communities certainty in their budgeting process.' The measure also includes an increase to the homestead property tax exemption benefit from a proposed $25,000 in the initial bill to $50,000. Some of these changes — like allowing for greater levy rate increases during inflationary periods — were brought up during subcommittee meetings on the legislation by advocates representing local governments. Dawson said the new version of the legislation came out of discussions and suggestions on the original bill. 'When we filed our original bill, we were looking to get it out to the public so we could start receiving feedback and input, and the bill filed today is a result of that feedback,' Dawson said in the release. '… These updated proposals continue our goal of rebuilding the property tax system to bring relief, and bring more predictability and transparency to taxpayers, local governments and businesses.' Concerns about other portions of the proposal raised by local government representatives, like changes to tax increment financing (TIF) revenues and the shift of $426 million in K-12 schools from property taxes to the state, were not addressed by the amendment, remaining the same in the new legislation. The new property tax bill has not been scheduled for a subcommittee as of Wednesday. In interviews with reporters and at meetings, Kaufmann has repeatedly stated that his goal is for the measure to pass during the 2025 legislative session, while giving time for feedback and alterations as needed. Republican leaders have echoed this sentiment, while saying that they want to ensure the bill will have its intended impact of lowering property taxes while allowing local governments to continue providing needed services. Senate President Amy Sinclair told reporters earlier in August that 'we want it done right, rather than fast.' 'For me, it's a priority to get done this session,' Sinclair said. 'But if it doesn't get done this session, it's because … we didn't have all the details in place to get it done right. Kaufmann said in a statement on the updated property tax bill that the measure will provide needed relief from rising property tax costs. 'With assessment letters coming out, Iowans have been louder than ever with their concerns about property taxes,' Kaufmann said. 'Iowans have expressed their concern, rage, and fear about unpredictable increases and their ability to afford staying in their homes. We are working to provide real relief to Iowans and their families, make Iowa a competitive state to live, and deliver a property tax overhaul that focuses on property taxpayers.'
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Iowa Republicans release bill that looks to overhaul property tax system
DES MOINES, Iowa — High property taxes is something that Iowans have known well for the last several years, along with city leaders trying to find ways to overcome shortfalls in budgets. Senate Study Bill 1208 and House Study Bill 313 are companion bills that look to overhaul the current property tax system in the state according to the republican bill sponsors. 'In previous years, anytime we've done property tax legislation, it's been calling around the edges, tinkering with in the current system, making incremental improvements to the current system and this bill takes a completely different approach,' said State Representative Bobby Kaufmann (R) District 82 from Wilton. The bill is estimated by the republican sponsors to provide $426 million in property tax cuts, implements a 2% revenue restriction to give relief to Iowans, $25,000 homestead tax credit and gives seniors a property tax freeze if they make less than a certain income threshold. The bill aims to lower tax levies by phasing out a rollback system that hasn't been updated since 1977. These changes would be applied over the next half decade. Snow piles up in Carroll with more snow on the way 'Iowans will get a $400 million property tax cut through basically the state assuming a greater portion of school funding,' said State Senator Dan Dawson (R) District 10, from Council Bluffs. Rep. Kaufmann and Sen. Dawson said the bill was a result of years of conversations with local and city governments. There is no expectation for the bill to move forward quickly as both want the state to see the proposal, and amendments may be added. They both expect the bill to pass this session. Democrat leadership and members of the Iowa House caucus responded to the bill dropping on Thursday afternoon. 'Iowans should be extremely skeptical about the GOP's latest property tax plan. Over the last decade, every attempt by GOP lawmakers to fix Iowa's property tax system has failed. Property taxes just keep going up every year, especially for homeowners. House Democrats believe we need to put money back in the pockets of homeowners and renters immediately.' Rep. David Jacoby (D) District 86 from Coralville Iowa News: 1 killed in Shelby County armed standoff Iowa Republicans release bill that looks to overhaul property tax system Snow piles up in Carroll with more snow on the way WHO 13 Farm Report: Thursday, March 6th Remains of Iowa WWII soldier killed on D-Day identified Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
