On Sept. 1st the Marshalltown Times Republican ran an article about the city receiving $600,000 from the state for additional renovations to the old library. Rep. Mark Smith was quoted as saying "the city's project was exactly the kind of project the I-JOBS program was designed to help." He also said, "If not for the state funding, ...the burden would have eventually fallen to local taxpayers to come up with the money."
You can debate how many jobs the funding will create and how long they will last, but what you can't debate is who will be paying for them. To say the I-JOBS program saved local taxpayers from having to foot the bill is both deceptive and condescending. Does he really think that if he uses the words "state funding" readers won't realize that eventually the money will still come from them?
Governor Culver's highest priority in the last legislative session was to get approval to borrow nearly $800 million dollars for numerous uses. You can say that taxpayers across the state are helping to pay for our City Hall relocation but it's just as true to say that local taxpayers are paying for projects, they may or may not approve of, all across the state because the Legislature gave in to the Governor's demands.
The Des Moines Register published a poll in April that said that 71% of Iowans were opposed to the state bonding. With interest added in it is estimated that the amount we will have to pay back is over $1.7 billion. Local tax payers, you may or may not agree with the extra work being done on the old library but one thing is for certain - you will be footing the bill for the $600,000 and a whole lot more for the next twenty years.