Survey Results
In July, Citizens for Smart Governance, mailed a survey to 6000 Davenport households. The committee received 1200 responses to five questions, concerning various issues related to the city. The results are, by no means a scientific sample, but are interesting nonetheless. I thought I would share with you all; feel free to comment as well. (For the sake of brevity - I have summarized the questions a bit)
1. Do the city's speed cameras help make our streets safer and we should add more, or do you believe the cameras infringe on our rights and should be removed?
49%, remove cameras
35%, add additional cameras
12.5%, no opinion
3.5%, keep, but do not add more
2. Support or oppose 4-yr. terms?
54%, oppose 4-yr. term
41%, support 4-yr. term
5%, undecided
3. Automated garbage collection?
48%, right decision
29%, wrong decision
23%, undecided
4. Recently city taxes were raised $.50 per $1000 of assessed value for a new police station. Now, some have suggested using local option sales tax (presently used for street construction and property tax relief) to hire more police officers instead. Would you support shifting tax dollars away from streets and property taxes to public safety?
66%, keep dollars devoted to streets/tax relief
22%, support moving to public safety
12%, undecided
5. The council has discussed some new ideas on property tax relief. One idea is to freeze the city portions of property tax levels for homeowners who make less than $25k per year. Do you support/oppose this concept of freezing these dollars and making up the difference someplace else in the budget?
54%, support freeze
32%, oppose freeze
14%, undecided
posted by Ian Frink @ 9:42 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Mr. Frink,
Sales tax for property tax relief. Never seen a credit on my property tax bill. Can you explain how I'm getting relief on one type of tax by paying more sales tax?
Mr. Frink,
Do you have to be a member of
Citizens for a Smart Governance
to have a survey mailed to your home?
Question; Is this the same group that got their butts handed to them on the 4 year council terms?
Please!
Thanks for the posts.
The survey was provided to the council by the citizen group, which was formed out of the Davenport Action Initiative. The survey, as the initial post states, was not a scientific study, simply a sampling of 6000 voters in the city.
Yes - these sam efolks got their butts kicked - yes they did. They aren't about smart government, they are about DavenportONe and the real estate developers.
Sales tax was to be 40% for Capital improvement and not 100% which is the way it is now. The city has taken the 60% for property tax reduction and used it to increase bonding (without increasing debt service tax) and thereby fool the public. It is this kind of dishonest approach to City Government that gets people pissed off. We need to use the 60% to pay down the debt without increasing it and when the portion used to increase capital improve has been paid off, reduce taxes according to what the people voted for in the beginning. Do not keep telling falsehood to the public. We are not all dumb!
Let us get some people elected who are not in bed with DavenportONe. They do not know what is best for Davenport. If they were they would have taken heed in 2003 that the Arsenal was in trouble and might get the ax.
Why are re-active and not pro-active? A lot of money is given by the City to DaenportOne and yet no one has an accounting on how it is spent! There is that old saying "Show Me The Money" or maybe it should be "Show Me Where The Money Is Spent!"
here here
To Anon. 10:01, Anon. 3:35,
Thanks for the posts. I believe Davenport-One is doing is not reported in the newspaper. This is beyond their control.
The organization has formed a task force to assist with recommendations for the Brady-Harrison corridor, has a small business council that advocates for the hundreds of entities in this town that are fostering organic growth, sponsors a leadership class for young professionals through SAU that has graduated over 100 leaders in the past five years, has formed the Downtown Partnership which has assisted in bringing residents downtown and has focused on assisting with tourism and promotion of our city, leads the charge with the GDRC that has landed a rail spur and two new businesses in the E. Iowa Industrial Center, and has an organization (NEXT) that has over 600 members that sets goals for workforce attraction/retention. These are just a few initiatives that aren't portrayed in the media -- the organization is working for the benefit of Davenport. I don't agree with each and every direction D-One has taken over the years, but the group does far more good than harm. - Ian
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