Some towns may not use tax revenue for flood relief, prevention
Some of the communities that OK’d the 1 percent local-option tax — pitched as the answer for flood-related projects — will not be using the funds for flood relief because there is no need, their leaders say.
But Iowa City officials assured people Wednesday all this city’s funds will indeed go toward flood relief and prevention projects.
Though the results of Tuesday’s local-option sales tax remain unofficial — absentee ballots count if received up to May 11 — Iowa City Councilor Connie Champion said all of the money Iowa City would earn would be spent on raising the Park Road bridge and Dubuque Street.
This will take up the majority of the profit from the 1 cent increase that would run from July 1 through June 30, 2013.
“Then we’re going to run out of money,” Champion said.
Officials have also considered consolidating the North Wastewater Treatment Plant — which flooded last summer — with its southern counterpart.
Tuesday’s vote was extremely close in the largest cities involved in the voting. Unofficial results show Iowa City voters passed the tax by six votes, and Coralville residents opposed it by seven.
Other towns involved — including Lone Tree, Oxford, Swisher, Tiffin, and Solon — passed the tax, and officials in those towns have said they plan to use funds for non-flood-related projects.
Steve Greenleaf, the city attorney for Lone Tree, Oxford, Swisher, and Tiffin, said none of the four towns had flood-remediation problems to deal with.
“None of them tied the sales tax to any particular project,” Greenleaf said. “All of them talked about community-improvement projects.”
It made sense for residents in those towns to vote for the tax so they could get a share of the pot.
“Those people aren’t any more pro-tax than the average Joe,” he said. “They stand to gain a lot by the sales tax revenues.”
Solon City Administrator Cassandra Lippincott said although the town’s city council hasn’t formally specified a project for the funds, officials have tentative plans to create some turn lanes at the Highway 1 and Fifth Street intersection.
The 1 percent sales tax was originally projected to garner $70 million in funds if passed in all 13 areas that voted on it, but if Coralville — a main commercial center in the county — maintains its opposition to the tax after an official count, the picture is less clear.
“If it doesn’t pass in Coralville, we’ll have a lot less money,” Champion said, noting that money spent in Coralville businesses won’t be included in the tax dollars.
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