City abused use of tax revenue

Why are we being asked to vote for an extension on an option sales tax, when the one that is in effect has been abused? We were told that it would be houses, houses, houses. So what happened?

The city paid Sasaki Associates more than $5 million as of Jan 25, 2011, for public engagement with the Army Corps of Engineers, for informational sessions and complete final urban design principles documents. What happened to that plan?

Meanwhile, the city awarded the library $4 million of sales tax money to help buy the TrueNorth property. TrueNorth paid the city $250,000 for the old library.

City officials want to use more option tax money to help build a new public works building (already cleaned by FEMA and in use). From the general fund, the city plans to pay Tony Hawk $16,500 to be a speaker for a series at the library. That wasn't LOST, but the city can spend more general fund money when they use an extra $4 million from LOST. And the list goes on.

They need to fix this before getting any more tax money. Vote “no.”

Carol J. Martin

Cedar Rapids