Taxes on our minds this week

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Public opinion polls get a bad rap, not so much because of what they show but because of how they get used, and used and used again.

We published one on today's (Sunday, May 3) front page of The Gazette and at GazetteOnline.com, telling you what a scientific sample of Johnson County residents think of the pending 1 percent local-option sales tax up for a vote Tuesday. We did this for a simple reason: You want to know. Use the information as you will.

Often those at a poll's short end cry foul when the data get published, claiming the poll unfairly will keep people with their view from voting. But experiences have shown that these opinion polls are snapshots in time. And while many The Gazette has conducted have been accurate predictors, people with enough initiative to vote still get to have the final say.

That especially will be true Tuesday given that our poll shows a statistical toss-up in Johnson County. Voters in that county must make some key decisions when deciding whether or not they favor the tax, allowed under a state law for jurisdictions hit by last summer's weather disasters.

• Is flood remediation needed at all in Iowa City or Coralville?

• If you think a need exists, is raising the local tax from 6 percent to 7 percent on taxable goods necessary?

• Should North Liberty, Solon and other government entities get money because a natural disaster struck Iowa City and Coralville?

• Can you spare an extra dime for every $10 you spend on taxable goods?

The Gazette and GazetteOnline.com have plans for full coverage of Tuesday's vote, not only in Johnson County but in five Linn County cities that rejected a local-option tax a first time around in March. Those cities are Marion, Hiawatha, Robins, Center Point and the portion of Walford that is in Linn County.

We've written plenty about the Linn County tax experience leading up to the March vote, when Cedar Rapids adopted the extra tax. Not much has changed when it comes to the issues. Supporters just want you to take another look and decide if you changed your mind.

What to call the flu?

Iowa's Tom Vilsack got a ball rolling in his job as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture last week when he said we should not call the flu that has us all worried the "swine flu." The name unfairly gave a wrong impression about the pork industry, he noted. But the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control, the leaders on this kind of thing, called it the swine flu.

That is, until the end of last week. By then the World Health Organization was calling it Influenza A (H1N1) and the Centers for Disease Control was calling it  H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu). That created a problem for news outlets and news consumers alike -- we got used to knowing it as the swine flu. Gazette stories are using H1N1 and references to it being known as the swine flu so you know what we are talking about.

Meantime, we're also going to publish for the time being daily local information about the virus as it spreads through our coverage area. The Linn County Public Health Department, working with its counterpart in Johnson County and other agencies in our coverage area, is pulling this information together for the paper.

Dustin Hinrichs, air pollution control specialist and public information officer with the Linn County public health department, called this push "a sense of prevention." This is a good time for that, before the flu explodes as some fear it may when it arrives. "There is urgency, but I don't want it to be a panicked urgency," Hinrichs said Friday.

Page size and comics reminder

I wrote last week that The Gazette will trim, starting Tuesday, 1 1/2 inch off each page we print in a bid to curb expenses. This is a reminder, in case you missed that.

The move includes a couple of positive notes. The comics "Pearls Before Swine" and "Get Fuzzy" return to the daily paper on Tuesday because of popular demand. They never have left the Sunday paper.

And

Rich Patterson's outdoors tips will move to the Sunday A section, on an every-other-week basis. Patterson's popular column never was in danger of leaving but some people have asked. We're glad he still is eager to do the column.