Storm Lake, Buena Vista County budget $625,000 for legal fight

Storm Lake and Buena Vista County have budgeted another $625,000 for legal services in the fiscal year that began July 1, keeping taxpayer money locked into a tax-increment-financing fight that has already stretched for more than two years. Buena Vista County penciled in $400,000 on its own side of the ledger, underscoring how much of the local budget is still being pulled into the case.

The money is tied to the city’s lawsuit over alleged misappropriation of more than $5 million in Storm Lake TIF revenues. Storm Lake ordered its law firm to sue the county in March 2024, later increasing its demand to $7.5 million. The dispute centers on how the county auditor’s office distributed the city’s tax-increment financing revenue, a question that has become both a legal fight and a local argument over property taxes and spending.

The cost has climbed fast. By mid-2025, the city and county had spent nearly $200,000 on the case. By Jan. 5, 2026, that figure had passed $480,000, with Storm Lake alone paying $314,000 to its law firm. The legal tab has kept rising even as the case moved through discovery, with depositions taken and one report saying there were four months left before trial.

Buena Vista County has tried to end the case by arguing immunity and by seeking dismissal on statute-of-limitations grounds, but a judge allowed Storm Lake’s lawsuit to survive for a second time. That left both governments still forecasting attorney fees instead of closing the books on a dispute that began with the county auditor’s alleged handling of TIF money and has now become a fixture in budget planning.

For Storm Lake and Buena Vista County, the unanswered question is not just what the lawsuit is worth, but how long residents will keep paying for it. Every new round of filings and court dates means less room in the budget for roads, staffing, equipment and other basic local needs while the county and city wait for a ruling that could settle the accounting fight.