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Home My WebLink About2008-02-05 Correspondence~3 eQ~.a.~tt,~,~~j~ --~ dca~; uG// 02-05-08 4f 1 City Council of Iowa City, Iowa Re: Statement from Iowa City administration and council detailing. measures being taken for needed energy conservation. FYI: Fargo, ND landfill produces electricity- a wind generator and solar panels convert natural elements and methane gas from garbage. Las Vegas, NV: Geothermal heating and solar panels capture .heat from earth's surface and energy from the sun. Three miles from the Strip is a new 180 acre Springs Preserve which features an eight acre desert garden annual rainfall- 4.5 inches) and two miles of trails through Las Vegas valley's diverse landscape. The preserve offers a variety of workshops. (springpreserve.org) Boston, MA: The annual Alt Wheels Transportation festival presents information on all forms of sustainable transportation. Oregon State University is studying how to use buoys off Oregon's rocky coast to generate electricity through wave power. (Iowa City/Johnson County has the Iowa River and Coralville Reservoir and limestone cliffs~~`~r U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement has ideas (Mayor of Seattle can be contacted). Des Moines, IA: Rain Gardens promote the benefit of natural storm water management- they collect storm water for irrigation via restored wetlands. (Also in Little Rock, AR) Anchorage, Alaska- computers are programmed to "hibernate" when not in use; saves energy costs and reduces CO2 emissions. Query: What is Iowa City doing? A concerned citizen. Respectfully, ~~~n.~ D. _ 3 11 ~',~,~~~-~/~{' R~ ~ via- > s ~~ ~s- n ,,~,,~.~.e w~~r:~---~i~ ;~~ ~ - :_~_ _1 4f 2 Marian Karr From: RussUPS@aol.com Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:40 AM To: Council Subject: (no subject) We need a new north side fire station. We need more police protection. No more excuses. Is seems that there is money flowing from every possible tax source and then even more lottery money than ever. So why are we without these two most basic needs. Why does it seem every thing else has higher priority? Despite receiving a tax break from the state with a residential roll back, most Iowa City homeowners will pay more in city taxes in the fiscal year 2008. This is because 2007 was ahome/property assessment year. Now I don't know how they could raise values when Iowa City had a glut of new homes on the market and real estate moved slower than in past years. One can only assume it is to put more money into a budget that is already out of control. In a recent study, affordable housing units are in great demand. It's estimated that between 2000-2012 there is an unmet need of 3,960 units. Home construction in the area is expected to slow and the houses that are built will favor higher income households and students. I recently had a new home built for my wife and I. The bottom line is OUR lot was 21 % of the cost of the new home. It's not the home that cost so much to build it's the amount of money you spend on a lot. Then when the time rolls around for assessment they raise land values so they can increase the price of your home. This seems to be the strategy since they lowered the percentage of a home's value that can be taxed. Our taxes in this community have been going up for years and we still need more police and fire protection but those are the last things that have been fulfilled with our past city council's. What stands out here is the fact that the University of Iowa as quite a bit of property that is exempt from the tax rolls. This is a town of about 65,000 people and 69% of the city budget is based on residential property taxes. We aren't an industrialized town or county. In a recent study University Hospitals generates $370 million to the Johnson County economy. With a total economic impact to the state of Iowa worth $497.9 million and contribute over $190 million in state sales tax revenue. The Johnson County Auditor said there is at least $273 million in tax exempt property in the county. That doesn't include University of Iowa property. That UI property contains 393 buildings and has a replacement value of $5.7 billion. This is an enormous amount of tax money our community is missing. Imagine the fire station and police force even a new joint communications center that has been in the planning, we could have with even half of the property taxes generated from these properties? During the 12 month period ending June 2007, the state of Iowa net revenue from all taxes totaled $6.206 billion, and increase of $374.5 million (6.4%) compared to the previous 12 months. Iowa has 17 casinos that are on pace to top the yearly record set in 2007 of $1.32 billion. Commission Chair Kate Cutler of Council Bluffs said that they are looking at expanding with Ottumwa, Fort Dodge and Tama being under consideration. Gaming Revenues FY 2007 Appropriations and Outlays were a total of $303,099,000.00. A large portion of that goes to the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund (RIFF), $78.7 million. In that category is public safety. Included in this $303 million is $60 million from lottery which 60% goes to Iowa public schools K- 12. This money is all easy income for the state and should all be given to community needs, none of this money should be retained by state government. Now here is Gov. Chet Culver asking fora 5-cent raise in the collection on bottles and cans which would now include bottled water, flavored teas and sport drink containers. I'm all for it, let everyone help out. The way I look at it, when I go to Chicago I have to pay toll money coming and going on major interstates. I find this to be just another version of a toll. Using a share of the new money to go towards funding the states environmental program (REAP). 1-cent would back to the grocery stores to cover the cost of handling returned bottles and cans. 1-cent would go to the states environmental plan. With the other 8-cents going back to the consumer. Any unredeemed deposits would go to the state. It's expected to generate $20 million dollars to REAP. He hopes to generate $35 million a year from this and he plans on raising $75 million a year from out of state corporations doing business in Iowa. I say raise it to 10- cents and give me a nickel back. How about keeping my 3 cents and ear-marking this for state wide public safety needs? 1/25/2008 Page 2 of 2 We recently passed a 1-cent SILO tax for Johnson County school district. In the first 6 months of the SIILO tax, Johnson County is going to receive $8.8 million dollars of which Iowa City schools get $6.7 million. Our county will get'this tax income for the next 10 years before they have to share it with the other counties in the state. On top of that the school system got another increase from property taxes for the FY of `07 & `08 of 4.9% or $2.2 million from the previous year. Now Gov. Culver wants to convert the 99 counties that have a local option sales tax now to a state wide 6% sales tax. He would use this to equalize and relieve property tax burdens and for road and bridge construction and help school districts. There is a lot of revenue generated by Lottery money and the states casino's and by other ways I have mentioned in the above article. But where does it go? It seems to help a lot of programs whose city and towns may not be impacted so much by tax exempt property like Johnson county. I think the state ought to look at city and county unions. They need to be more aware of the tax burdens it puts on people at the local level. Iowa City for example is becoming more of a city of retiree's. Granted there is a lot money in this town but there are a lot of people on fixed incomes here also in the low and middle class. Maybe cities like Iowa City should be subsidized with funds that are generated by State run facilities like the University Hospitals. First of all it generates over $190 million in state sales tax revenue. Then it consumes enough property that could be taxed anywhere else to hold 393 building that have a replacement value of $5.7 billion. With help from this and money from general fund, the new 5-cent raise in the can and bottle return. Maybe just maybe there would be help for communities like Iowa City- Johnson County and smaller communities that are in need of fire and police protection. You hear of to many small towns holding functions to raise money for their fire and police protection year in and year out. These are two areas that should be number one on every communities budget and not subsidized by the citizens above and beyond their taxes. Russell Haught Who's never won? BRic~gest Grammx Award surprises of all time on AOL Music_ Marian Karr Page 1 of 2 From: RussUPS@aol.com Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:43 AM To: joe.bolkum@legis.state.ia.us; robert.dvorsky@legis.state.ia.us; David.Jacoby@legis.state.ia.us; Marian Karr; Andy Rocca; Sam Hargadine; tneuzil@co.johnson.ia.us 1/25/2008