Pass the Popcorn!

I meant to comment sooner on a story in last week's Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Iowa City seeks answers on tax deal between University of Iowa and Coralville

What it boils down to that the City of Coralville and UI have a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement in place for the outpatient clinic at Iowa River Landing site. That agreement pays the Coralville over a million dollars a year. Iowa City gets 1.76 million dollars a year from UI to provide fire coverage to the entirety of campus surrounded by Iowa City. Iowa City officials sound like they are jealous of the agreement Coralville has. 

 

However, since the City of Coralville owned the land that the UI wanted, they were able to negotiate very favorable terms.

Watching this play out could be quite interesting. We'll see how the "cooperation" between the two cities works in sharing information. With UI taking over space near downtown Iowa City, so far they have not acquired any land from the City of Iowa City itself. While IC can claim projects such as the new music building, etc. should require PILOT payments, they don't have the same leverage in negotiations that Coralville has had.

March City Council Meeting Summary

City Council held their monthly March meeting last night. Here are some highlights:

St. Andrew Site concept design approved

Council said they approved of the concept of a one story commercial only front building and six story residential back building for developer Jeff Maxwell. Council further directed Maxwell to meet with Councilors Lane and Quezada as well as MPOjc staff while he worked to create a Planned Unit Development (PUD) document to bring for council approval. No PUD can be approved without a public hearing first being scheduled. Maxwell stated his hope was to bring a PUD to the April 8th regular council meeting.

FY2015 Budget approved

The fiscal 2015 budget, to begin in July 2014, was approved tonight. City revenues are projected at $901,745.00. The estimated revenues for FY14 are $1,120,009. One major reason for the decline is the cessation of LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) money which ran out in September 2013.

Mark Your Calendars!

Several major events are quickly approaching.

• Annual Spring Clean Up Day is SATURDAY APRIL 26th 9-noon with a dumpster on Marietta St. in front of Grandview apartments. Your non-toxic, non-yard waste garbage items may be disposed for free. The always popular "Too Good to Throw Away" table will be set up too, for you to pass items along to any willing takers.
• City Tree Planting Ceremony will be SUNDAY APRIL 27th with the time to be announced. Thanks to grants from MidAmerican Energy, MidwestOne and Hills Banks trees will be planted for free in city right of way locations. Celebrate Arbor Day +2 as we make the environment and our town a little better.
• Farmer's Market starts TUESDAY JUNE 3rd That's only 12 weeks away, a sure sign spring WILL come!

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I also write a blog covering U-H and other timely topics, with my opinions expressed UHForward.blogspot.com

As always it is a pleasure to serve as your city councilor.

 

-Mike

Keeping an Eye on IC

As has been reported in the Press Citizen this week, the City of Iowa City will be exploring the possibility of a Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) vote. This has major implications for U-Heights. to find what I've said about this before, find "LOST" from the topic list at the right.

The P-C story is here: Iowa City officials talk adding local option sales tax

When all of Johnson County voted on LOST in 2009, University Heights passed their measure with 80% support. As stated on the ballot at the time, money would be used for wide sidewalk projects and other purposes. Both the Melrose and Sunset wide sidewalks were constructed with 20% of funding coming from LOST money. The other 80% of those projects were funded by Federal dollars.

The 2009 LOST had a sunset date of July 2013. We received our last payment in September, and then got another one in October. From 2009-14 our share of LOST revenues averaged $10,000 dollars per month. It had been the equivalent of 10% of our annual revenues from 2009-2013.

Unlike Iowa City we *probably* won't be as hurt by property tax changes as they will. However as a small landlocked community our budgets are extremely tight.

I contacted the county auditor's office on Tuesday and asked the following questions. Their answers are in RED

Is it still true that LOST has to be voted on county-wide? 

YES

Does each municipality in the county get to hold a LOST vote if they desire?

YES

Would all taxes collected among LOST approving communities be pooled and re-allocated as they were in 2009?
YES, it would go through the Department of Revenue and then dispersed to each of the LOST approving communities.

I will say this as plainly as I can: If Iowa City decides to hold a LOST referendum it is imperative that we decide to put up a ballot initiative and to pass it. We will have to pay the tax in any community that passes an initiative and because food and medical services are exempt, we won't be collecting any tax in University Heights.