Sales Tax for Flood Recovery

In a city council meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Justin Shields placed an idea before his fellow council members: people should begin to pay an emergency local-option sales tax of 2 percent extra for the next two years. The money collected would go towards recovery for victims of the June 2008 flood.

Rick Smith with The Gazette reported:

“Shields said it’s clear that neither the federal nor the state government is going to provide the city with the disaster relief it needs. Shields, who represents sections of the southwest quadrant hit hard by the June flood, said he can’t keep telling flood victims to hold on, help is coming…School districts already have a 1 percent local-option sales tax in place in the county, and the state has a 5 percent tax. Most of the state’s largest cities have a 1 percent tax, too.”

The increase in sales tax for a couple of years is Shields’ answer to how the citizens of his community can be supported without having to take money out of the city or county’s budget, therefore, preventing more job losses. Some are looking at this idea as a way people in the community can help each other in this time of need.

Some are opposed to Shields’ idea with the current economic crisis in the United States. Read more here.

Learn about the flood recovery process and disaster recovery services.