SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
October 24, 2018
Sullivan’s Salvos 10/30/18
In this edition:
*Please Volunteer!
*Catch Season is Over!
*Johnson County Roads and Bridges
*Taxes in Johnson County
*Another Johnson County Honor!
*Did You Know?
*Please Volunteer!
This November’s election is the most important statewide election OF MY LIFETIME. We NEED you to vote on or before November 6th!
Early voting continues at the Auditor’s Office. Please take advantage of this opportunity!
And if you want to do more than just vote? That’s great! Contact Conner Dane at (617) 959-1428. He will help you get started volunteering.
*Catch Season is Over!
The World Series is upon us. The weather is getting cold. And frankly, I am spending every spare moment on the November elections. So catch is over for the 2018 season!
It was a great year – I played 16 times, starting in May and ending in October. That includes once with old high school teammates, and once at the Library of Congress! I played in IC, Coralville, Tiffin, and University Heights. I played with 12 men and 4 women. The youngest was 17, the oldest right around 70. I played with people I knew very well (my wife, for example!) and others I did not know well at all. We played when it was 95 and humid, and we played when it was 40 and windy. We talked about everything under the sun. All in all, a great year!
I will put out the call again next spring. I hope you will join me! Catch is good for the soul!
*Johnson County Roads and Bridges
One of the narratives in the current Supervisor race is the idea that we need to “pay more attention to roads and bridges.” Please allow me to address this matter.
Johnson County taxes the absolute highest amount possible for roads and bridges. We could not tax one cent more if we wanted to! State laws require that General Fund dollars may NOT be spent on roads and bridges, and that the Roads Fund dollars may be spent ONLY on roads and bridges.
So the only thing you can do to improve roads and bridges is increase your transfers to Roads. And we are maxed out. So the complaint is simply misinformed.
What’s more, I have served 14 years as a member of the County Board. Johnson County has not closed a SINGLE bridge in the past 14 years. Cedar, Washington, and Iowa Counties have all closed multiple bridges during this time period. Yet somehow Johnson County is seen as anti-farmer? We are the county that is investing in infrastructure!
I have challenged a couple of residents on this before. When I hear “roads are better in X county,” I say, “Let’s go drive some roads in both counties. Together. You choose the roads in Johnson County you want to drive, and I get to choose the roads in the other county. We will compare them.” No one has taken me up on this challenge.
Roads and bridges in Johnson County are certainly not perfect. But they are damn good. I’ll put them up against the roads anywhere else!
*Taxes in Johnson County
Taxes are high in Johnson County. Right? Uh, not so much. People love to hang onto the myth that Johnson County is a high tax county, but that simply is not the case.
According to data from the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC), Johnson County ranks:
*33rdin General Fund tax rate. 32 counties have higher tax rates, 66 have lower.
*49thin Rural Fund tax rate. 48 counties have higher tax rates, 50 have lower.
*35thin Combined tax rate. 34 counties have higher tax rates, 64 have lower.
As you can see, Johnson County does not rank particularly high when it comes to tax rates. We are actually very close to the middle of the pack when compared to the rest of the counties in Iowa.
Next time you hear someone say our county taxes are “highest in the state”, call them on their lie. I hear it a lot, and this misinformation needs to be challenged.
*Another Johnson County Honor!
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors and Finance Department have been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the County’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR) for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017. The awards are given by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA), a nonprofit professional association that serves more than 19,000 government finance professionals in North America.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Johnson County has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for the CAFR, and the third consecutive year for the PAFR.
The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and, according to GFOA, its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management. Both reports were reviewed by an impartial panel with experience in governmental accounting and financial reporting.
In order to receive the Award for Outstanding Achievement, the CAFR must meet the high standards of the program, including demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate a government unit’s financial story and motivate potential users to read the CAFR. To receive the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting, a government unit must publish a PAFR whose contents conform to program standards of creativity, presentation, understandability and reader appeal.
Copies of the County’s FY2017 CAFR and PAFR are available at https://www.johnson-county.com/dept_finance.aspx?id=15309.
*DID YOU KNOW? Some people have difficulty imagining the scale of millions and billions. One helpful way to grasp the concept is to think in terms of seconds. A million seconds is 11.5 days. A billion seconds is almost 32 years.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
These messages come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise mentioned.
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As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan@mchsi.com. I look forward to serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 9:11 PM
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