Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Unofficial results of today’s election in Linn County indicate that while Cedar Rapids, the largest municipality in the county, approved a penny local-option sales tax, some other incorporated areas disagreed.
Because the metro area did not vote as a bloc, only those areas that passed the local-option tax will see an increase. For instance, Cedar Rapids merchants will collect the additional penny in sales tax. Merchants in Marion, where the voters defeated the proposed tax, will not.
The Cedar Rapids City Council has passed a resolution promising that 90 percent of all the revenue collected during the five-year term will be used for flood-affected housing — buyouts, rehabilitations and relocations. The remaining 10 percent has been earmarked for property tax relief, although property taxes in Cedar Rapids are still expected to climb.
Dale Todd, co-chair for the Vote Yes For Your Neighbor advocacy group that supported the tax, said he’s glad voters in Cedar Rapids approved the tax. More importantly, however, he’s hopeful that the coalitions formed during the election push remain strong. Advocates were able to garner support from organizations that typically find themselves on opposite sides of issues — unions and the local chamber of commerce, for example, supported the tax increase.
Those who opposed the tax were obviously not pleased with the result, but were resolved to closely monitor distributions of the additional revenues. One of their largest complaints about the referendum was that the ballot language was written too loosely to ensure officials would spend money on housing.
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Local-Option Sales Tax Vote |
||||
| Area/City | % Total
Reg. Voters |
Yes | No | Pass/Fail |
| Alburnett | 26.9% | 75 | 43 | Pass |
| Cedar Rapids | 25.1% | 12968 | 9013 | Pass |
| Center Point | 24.3% | 184 | 195 | Fail |
| Ely | 25.3% | 154 | 121 | Pass |
| Fairfax | 26.2% | 237 | 119 | Pass |
| Hiawatha | 20.3% | 440 | 522 | Fail |
| Lisbon | 19.6% | 153 | 143 | Pass |
| Marion | 18.0% | 2044 | 2227 | Fail |
| Mount Vernon | 15.3% | 340 | 165 | Pass |
| Palo | 33.0% | 175 | 39 | Pass |
| Robins | 27.1% | 281 | 290 | Fail |
| Springville | 29.1% | 109 | 95 | Pass |
| Walford | 19.8% | 20 | 26 | Fail |
| Walker | 30.9% | 113 | 41 | Pass |
| Unincorporated Areas | 25.5% | 2025 | 1928 | Pass |
The approved tax will take effect April 1 and will sunset June 30, 2014.
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