Storm Lake County TIF lawsuit delayed again, legal costs rise

The legal tab in Storm Lake’s tax-increment financing fight kept growing this spring, even as the courtroom showdown slipped farther away. City and county officials agreed to delay the May trial, pushing back a six-day jury proceeding that had been set to begin May 5 in Emmet County and leaving taxpayers to absorb another $185,000 in lawyer bills from last month alone.

The case has been in motion since March 2024, when the City of Storm Lake sued Buena Vista County over alleged misappropriation of more than $5 million in TIF revenue. In December 2024, Judge Shayne Mayer moved the dispute to Emmet County after granting the city’s venue request. Earlier, Judge Charles Borth limited some of the city’s damages claims to a two-year look-back period, and the Iowa Supreme Court declined to take up the county’s interlocutory appeal, allowing the lawsuit to continue.

The money already spent shows how expensive the standoff has become. As of Jan. 5, 2026, the two sides had spent more than $480,000 on legal fees combined, with Storm Lake represented by Dorsey & Whitney of Des Moines and Buena Vista County by Nyemaster Goode of Des Moines. With the latest reported monthly bill added in, the total has climbed well past that mark before a jury has heard the underlying claims.

Storm Lake has also tried to widen the case. In March 2026, the city asked for about $7.5 million in what it called unnecessary loan costs tied to projects including Memorial Road resurfacing and the King’s Pointe renovation. County lawyers said the theory was speculative and failed as a matter of law, underscoring how far apart the two sides remain on both liability and damages.

The dispute has spilled beyond the courthouse as well. County Auditor Sue Lloyd said in December 2024 she would review all Storm Lake TIF districts to confirm whether they were supported by ordinance, after city finance officials said the county had overpaid the city $162,700 for the Third Addition area. Storm Lake says that area should not have received TIF revenue at all.

Iowa’s TIF law sits inside the state’s urban renewal framework under Chapter 403, a financing tool adopted in 1969. That long history has done little to settle the local fight now hanging over Storm Lake and Buena Vista County, where the next milestone is still a trial date that can finally hold the costs, claims and competing accounts up to public view.