Fifty city and county officials from around the state are gathered today in Waterloo for a local government summit. Tom Bredeweg with the Iowa League of Cities says they’ll look at ways to more efficiently run local government, something that already takes a lot of collaboration. He says they already do lots of “service sharing,” and economic development, roads and streets, and property-tax policy are the three big issues they’re going to talk about. Bredeweg says citizens shouldn’t think they can get unlimited local government services for free. Citizens know that if there are services they want there’s a cost and someone has to pay, or we won’t have them. Bredeweg says budget cuts aren’t having as much immediate effect on property taxes as they might, but it’s the long term local governments are concerned about. He says they rely too much on property taxes, and there may be better ways to pay for things like raising fees, or cutting services, a decision that’s up to citizens. Members of the League and the Iowa Association of Counties will meet with mayors of Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Black Hawk County supervisors and school board representatives.