OTTUMWA — Democratic legislative leaders stopped in Ottumwa on Thursday to tout their achievements from the 2008 General Assembly, but state Sen. Mike Gronstal and state Rep. Pat Murphy faced questions about several bills that passed.

Members of the Wapello County Board of Supervisors used the opportunity to bring some of their complaints directly to legislative leaders. They voted earlier this week to urge Gov. Chet Culver to use line-item veto to strike language from a bill that allows cities to capture TIF revenues that would otherwise go to the counties.

Supervisor Steve Siegel handed Murphy, D-Dubuque, the House majority leader, an envelope containing the county’s letter of protest as he came in.

“We’re upset,” he said. “But you’ve probably heard that before.”

“Just from about every county,” Murphy responded.

Gronstal and Murphy’s audience was primarily other elected officials. More than half of those present serve in the Iowa House or Senate.

Democratic leadership can usually count on a warm reception in Wapello County. Voters are overwhelmingly members of the Democratic Party, and the party controls the local elected offices. Gronstal and Murphy faced polite but pointed questions this time, particularly on a bill that allows cities to capture funds previously available to counties.

The supervisors blasted the bill during Tuesday’s meeting. They said the county stands to lose tens of millions of dollars if the bill is signed without changes. The bill allows cities to capture incremental increases in revenue from local option sales taxes for funds in Tax Increment Financing districts.

Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, framed the issue as a dispute over TIF, saying cities and counties have a fundamentally different view of the financing.

“You assume you’re going to lose it all. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of counties that are going to use this. Cities love TIF counties hate TIF that’s the way it is,” he said.

Siegel didn’t let go of the issue.

“I don’t think it’s at all fair. That’s not what our people voted for. They didn’t vote to fund the city’s TIF fund,” he responded.

County Auditor Phyllis Dean also questioned the bill’s impact, saying it leaves too much of county revenues at the mercy of cities.

“We won’t be able to afford to have the money go for what we said it would go for,” she said. Dean also questioned whether the Iowa Farm Bureau, one of the state’s more powerful lobbies, is aware of the bill. “Are they aware that this has happened?”

“Yeah, they’re lobbying [against] it, too,” Gronstal said.