Linn supervisors outline local-option sales tax pitch

Linn County supervisors have a simple selling point for rural residents on the proposed local-option sales tax extension.

“It's having other people outside your county finance your tax cut,” District 4 Supervisor Brent Oleson told members of The Gazette editorial board this morning.

Cedar Rapids residents will vote May 3 on a proposal to extend the 1 percent local option sales tax through 2034 to fund flood protection, street repairs, and property tax relief. The ballot in the county's unincorporated areas seeks to use half the LOST revenue to fund road improvements, with the balance split between conservation programs and property tax relief.

“It's a tax cut,” said Oleson, a Republican from Marion. “They're getting more in property tax benefits than they're paying in” through the sales tax.

The tax-relief portion of county's LOST revenue would be devoted exclusively to property owners who pay the rural levy, which assessed only on property outside city limits.

Oleson said that pitch has convinced the county's Farm Bureau and Iowa Conservative Union members to endorse a “yes” vote.

District 5 Supervisor John Harris, a Republican from Palo, said the road projects that would be funded through the tax were picked to be sustainable.

“They are maintainable, in such a way, with an eye on what happens after the local-option sales tax goes away,” he said.

Although the rural share of the tax revenue wouldn't be earmarked for flood control, conservation projects may include watershed management projects undertaken with other counties in the Cedar River's watershed.

“It's something that hasn't been done for a long, long time,” said Harris. “And it's about time.”

The plan devised by county supervisors would see about 10 percent of the county's population receive 17 percent of expected tax revenues. If the option passes in Cedar Rapids but fails in unincorporated Linn County, “rural areas would be paying it without seeing any of the benefits,” Oleson said.

There are 15,347 registered voters in the county's unincorporated areas.