Gazette reporting yesterday board member by board member on the sales tax:
Most Iowa City school board members said they were leaning toward voting to put the measure on the ballot but wanted to stay openminded and hear what the public might say Tuesday night before they vote.
Iowa City board member Aletia Morgan joined others in saying her vote rides on how a school sales tax would be applied to a list of needs in the district.
‘‘I will support it when I see a list of what it’s going to be used for,’’ Morgan said. ‘‘I want to see a statement of, in general, where it would be applied. I know we need it, but I want to have some clarity of purpose.’’
Community members have told Morgan they wish the Iowa Legislature would give schools ‘‘a better way to do this that is less potentially regressive,’’ Morgan said.
She said she ‘‘sympathizes’’ with those who say sales taxes hit low-income people the hardest, ‘‘but I want to make sure we offer the resources that benefit all our students.’’
Board member Patti Fields agreed.
‘‘Sales taxes are hard on individuals, but people are willing to do that to support education,’’ Fields said. ‘‘They’re not as willing to do that to support cities.’’
Both the Iowa City Council and the Johnson County Board of Supervisors have asked the school district to share some of the sales tax revenue with those bodies.
Other Iowa City board members characterized the community as generally opposed to schools sharing sales tax money with cities.
The board will talk about that issue on Tuesday but will be in no rush to make a decision, board president Peter Wallace said.
‘‘We haven’t passed the (vote to put the tax on the ballot) yet,’’ Wallace said. ‘‘It is premature to speculate whether it is going to be shared’’ with cities.
‘‘If we were going to share, we would tell the citizens as soon as possible. We would insist that the cities (in Johnson County) stipulate what they spend it on. We want to be upfront and transparent in this process.’’
Wallace said only a few of the 97 Iowa counties with the school tax, called a School Infrastructure Local Option tax, share the income with cities.
School board members in both counties said they would want to use a sales tax for technology, infrastructure and/or property tax relief.
Janet Leff put Iowa City’s school district infrastructure repair needs in perspective.
‘‘We have a list of physical plant improvements that need to be done in our school district that is more than $60 million,’’ she said. ‘‘We have $3 million per year’’ from the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy tax levy that is used to improve buildings.
Elizabeth Crooks said she would like to see what a sales tax would fund and then put it on the county ballot for voters to decide. Before the community vote, the board could gather community input more precisely about where the money would go, Crooks said.
Gayle Klouda also favored letting voters decide whether to have a tax. Toni Cilek couldn’t be reached for comment.
Also looking toward a local vote: Wal-Mart? Local activist and Wal-Mart suer Gary Sanders says vote; Steve Atkins says we can't.
While Johnson County is voting locally and maybe voting on shopping, Louisa County is shopping locally, or at least starting to since they have the lowest retail sales in the state. Brouught back a few memories as Louisa was the bulk of the district I ran in ten years ago. My favorite Louisa business - El Charro restaurant in Conesville - is now closed. But La Reyna grocery of Columbus Junction, metioned in the article, also has a branch on the south side of Iowa City.
My own local shopping was at garage sales this weekend where I acquired the wretched excess of computer number seven, plus a couple spare monitors. Anyone need a Linux box?
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