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Thursday, July 20, 2017

Bond campaign fundraising reports

Both sides of the bond campaign had to file contribution and expenditure reports yesterday. The “Yes” side’s report is here; its previous report is here. The “No” side’s (only) report is here.

So far, the “Yes” campaign has raised $82,977.31—that’s about twenty times what a typical school board campaign costs in our district. Seventeen donors gave $1000 or more; those donors accounted for almost three-quarters of the total. They are:

Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce

$17,500

MidwestOne Bank

$ 7,506.31

University of Iowa Community Credit Union

$ 7,500

Hills Bank

$ 7,500

Southgate Development Service

$ 4,000

Gary Watts Real Estate & Development

$ 2,500

Neumann Monson, Inc.

$ 2,000

Hayek, Moreland, Smith, Bergus, L.L.P.

$ 2,000

Arlington Development, Inc.

$ 2,000

U.S. Bank

$ 1,200

Houser Enterprises

$ 1,000

RPB Properties, L.L.C.

$ 1,000

Rohrbach Associates, P.C.

$ 1,000

TLD, Inc.

$ 1,000

Cedar Rapids Building Trades, CR/IC

$ 1,000

Mark Moen and Bobby Jett (jointly)

$ 2,000

 

On the “No” side, there were no $1000 donors. One person gave $200, and no one else gave more than $100. The total raised was $1721.

The “Yes” side has spent $36,992.49. The “No” side has spent $814.48.

6 comments:

mariaconz said...

Building new schools and housing developments in corn fields attracts big money from developers and banks. Closing neighborhood schools in walkable areas in town makes no sense, but there's money to be made in urban sprawl. Too bad each bus to a far away school will cost as much as a teacher.

Anonymous said...

As they say, when considering a choice;
look to see who benefits from it.
It is pretty obvious who considers this bond to be a huge boon in their pocketbooks.

amy said...

Wait, wait, wait. Yes has spent THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND? On what?!

It wouldn't happen to be a...consultant, would it?
Like maybe one employed by an architecture firm?
That might could maybe be bidding on bond-funded projects?

See now, this is why, when people come waving paper that says, "This school project costs X dollars," I say, "Who says?"

Thirty-six thousand dollars, in two months, to get at what might be 7-8K votes. That is some fancy marketing and some premium votes.

Anonymous said...

FOLLOW THE MONEY FOLLOW THE MONEY FOLLOW THE MONEY

This stinks to high heaven. It's sad how so many of the so-called "liberals" have become the boosters of Big Business in this town.

Anonymous said...

This is a case of tax payer subsidy and welfare for the banks, builders and architect design firms. It is not a natural growth. Rather, we are building more than we need--1700 more seats than projected, while the said projection is already inflated, we are wasting a whole lot of money already by tearing down a perfect good school, and we are building capacity where it is NOT needed. We mixed wants and needs and we hijack the voters with that mix. We are also giving an administration that has no transparency, has a culture of retaliation, and no accountability in managing such a huge amount.

This bond needs to fail.

amy said...

Chris: am I correct in thinking that there is *no* cap on potential bond-related property tax rates in Iowa? TIA