Hiawatha Mayor: Bill Bennett

Bill Bennett has been a resident of Hiawatha for 45 years. He has been a licensed Iowa Auto Dealer for many years and has operated several other businesses in Hiawatha for most of his working life. Bill is also the owner of several commercial properties that he leases to other business owners in Hiawatha and the surrounding area.

Bill was the local Honda and Yamaha motorcycle dealer for many years. He was responsible for bringing these dealerships to Hiawatha and growing them by 400 percent before selling the dealerships to the McGrath family.

Bill served on the citizens committee that established the Hiawatha Town Center project, and supports the project. However, he does not support the current level of spending that is occurring to create the Town Center.

Hiawatha has enjoyed terrific growth in our property tax base. This has been result of many factors, including the support given to new development by Hiawatha city government. It is also a result of Hiawatha's proximity to I-380 and Hiawatha being part of the Cedar Rapids metro area. Many Hiawatha businesses depend on the regional labor force to make their businesses successful. Hiawatha provides a desirable community that this labor force can call home. These factors have to be considered more significant than the monogrammed streetlights and all of the landscaping under them.

Bill believes that as the property tax base grows, the increased revenue it generates should make the operation of city government more efficient. City spending needs to be controlled so the operation of city government becomes more efficient, and some of those gains in efficiency should be used for property tax relief. The property tax rate for Hiawatha is one of the highest in the Cedar Rapids metro area. With the added revenue from the local-option sales tax, Hiawatha should be able to offer Hiawatha property owners some property tax relief.

Bill understands that Cedar Rapids needed the revenue from the LOST to fund the flood protection construction. However, there was no flood in Hiawatha.

Bill also believes that the city should support smaller and existing property owners as much as the developers responsible for the new projects in Hiawatha.

A vote for Bill Bennett for Hiawatha mayor is a vote for a common sense, fiscally conservative approach to government.

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