Voters approve conservation bond


Rachel Gallegos • Iowa City Press-Citizen • November 5, 2008
 


Johnson County voters narrowly approved a plan Tuesday to spend $20 million in a 20-year period to conserve open space.
By collecting taxes for two decades, the Johnson County Conservation Board will have the funds to buy and preserve remnant areas of land scattered throughout the county from willing sellers.
 
According to unofficial results from the Johnson County Auditor's office, 61 percent of county residents -- or 38,988 -- voted to approve the bond measure, while 39 percent voted against it with all of Johnson County's 58 precincts reporting.
 
The special ballot measure required a super majority -- or 60 percent of voters -- to pass.
Seventy percent of early voters, or 24,761 people, voted in favor of the conservation bond.
 
"We are extremely happy," said CJ Voci of Iowa City, a member of the steering committee for Citizens for Our Land, Water and Future, which supported the measure.
 
"We are delighted to have won," he said. "I'm not surprised that it was this close."
 
"I think this says great things about Johnson County and where we're going in the future," Voci said.
 
"It was a hard-fought fight," said Tom Cardella of Flip No, one of two groups that opposed the measure. "The voters had their decision."
Janelle Rettig, co-chairwoman of Citizens for Our Land, Water and Future, said from here, the county's conservation board and trails advisory committee will work together on strategic planning. Both have developed plans, she said.
 
"It's time to revisit those and start planning much more carefully where we go next," she said. "The conservation money will be in very good hands."
 
Supporters have said the bond money will be leveraged, when possible, with federal, state and private funding sources. The bond measure expenditures will be subject to an annual independent audit.
 
To fund the initiative, Johnson County home and landowners will pay owners additional taxes for the next 20 years. A $200,000 house will be taxed an additional $26.36 a year for 20 years under the current valuation, while farmland owners will pay about an additional 21 cents per acre for the 20-year period.
 
 
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