SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
April 8, 2025
Sullivan’s Salvos 4/10/25
In this edition:
*Passover
*Ben Rogers
*Happy 78th Birthday Gary!
*Supervisors All Think Differently
*Mutual Aid
*Property Taxes
*Did You Know?
*Passover
A Kosher and happy Passover to all my Jewish friends. I am still brushing up on my Hebrew calendar; please know that I wish you all the best!
*Ben Rogers
I want to wish a hearty congratulations to my pal Ben Rogers, a longtime Linn County Supervisor, on his new job.
Ben and I have served together for several years on the Board of the Mental Health Region that serves Linn, Johnson, and several other counties. (I was around for the creation of the Region. Ben joined a few years later. Then I took a four-year hiatus before returning a few years ago.)
Anyway, Ben will be joining Unity Point, St. Luke’s Foundation. Best of luck, my friend!
*Happy 78th Birthday Gary!
Happy Birthday to local activist, Labor Leader, journalist, Scrabble Club President, and general man-about-town Gary Sanders, who turns 78 on April 14. If you know Gary, please drop him a line and wish him a Happy Birthday!
*Supervisors All Think Differently
The five Johnson County Supervisors live in five pretty different parts of Johnson County. If you said, “All five of you go to the Coralville Public Library at 1:00 pm,” you would find five different people, at five different starting points, going five different directions, arriving at five different times. Even if we all get there, we all get there differently.
I think this serves as a good metaphor for the fact that the Johnson County Board of Supervisors is not a monolith. We have five very separate and distinct philosophies as to what the job of a Board Member is, what we ought to be doing, when, where, and how. We have five different opinions on the role of county staff. We have five different opinions on the roles of other Elected Officials. When it comes to the issues we face, there are five different approaches.
Obviously, this is both good and bad. It is certainly not as efficient as it could be. On the other hand, our decision-making involves more voices, which means a greater diversity of opinion. The list of pros and cons is long.
This Board has, for the most part, agreed when it comes to voting. Most of our votes are 5-0. Few are 3-2. I think this is primarily because we generally talk things out before we vote. Individual Supervisors get the opportunity to air questions and concerns before casting votes.
One place where we have not had much discussion is how things work operationally. This is the “inside baseball” stuff that the public does not see. I think we still have a lot of work to do in this arena.
Meanwhile, take some time to look behind the 5-0 votes. Most of the discussion happens at work sessions, not formal meetings. Check those out if you want a better idea as to how your Supervisors think and feel. And remember, the Board is definitely not a monolith! We have very different opinions and very different ways of doing business.
*Mutual Aid
Iowa City has seen a lot of interest in mutual aid movements over the past few years. What is mutual aid? I found several definitions online – here is one: “Mutual aid is a grassroots approach where community members voluntarily collaborate to support each other's needs, often bypassing traditional charity or government structures, and focusing on solidarity and collective action.”
We have seen some local mutual aid efforts to feed the hungry, house the unhoused, and to assist people who need medical care, just to name a few. And you know what? That is good! We need as many people as possible helping those in need. There is plenty of work to go around, and plenty of unmet need.
So I am glad mutual aid has grown here. I do have some frustrations, however, when supporters of mutual aid attack nonprofit and/or governmental attempts to assist these same folks. I get it – nonprofits are not perfect. Governments are not perfect. Both should always be looking to improve. But tearing down others who want to help the same folks you do seems like a poor strategy.
Obviously, not everyone engaged in mutual aid is taking shots at nonprofit and/or governmental efforts. The number of people doing so is actually very small. But the impact of these actions hurts everyone.
We need a combination of government, nonprofits, and mutual aid to best help our friends and neighbors. Let’s support all three groups as they do this important work.
*Property Taxes
The topic of property tax cuts has come up yet again at the Iowa Legislature. I remain opposed to cutting the property tax. Cutting property taxes is better for the rich, and worse for the poor. This is because property taxes are less regressive than most other taxes.
What is regressivity? This means that the poor pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than do the wealthy. Sales taxes are the most regressive taxes. Income taxes are the most progressive taxes. Property taxes sit between the two, but are definitely more progressive.
A person with an income of $90,000 paid 3.2% of her income in taxes. A person earning $19,500 paid 11.1% of her income in taxes. Relative to income, the poor pay more than twice what the middle class pay, and nearly 5 times the amount the wealthy pay.
So who are the poor? Most of the people living in poverty in Iowa and elsewhere are children. There are more poor women than poor men. 15% (105,000) of the children in Iowa live in poverty. Even more (42%) live in low-income families. Taken together, over half our children are poor. Cutting property taxes hurt them the most.
This is just a matter of political will. Elected officials are afraid to ask the people with the actual money to pay more. So they squeeze the poor, who by and large don’t complain to legislators, and don’t contribute to campaigns.
Some folks are under the impression that renters do not pay property taxes. While it is true they do not pay them directly, renters are definitely covering the landlord’s property taxes!
Republicans like to claim that property taxes drive up rents. That is not true. Assuming there is a demand, landlords will raise rents, regardless of taxes. They try to squeeze out maximum profit. This is supply and demand and will happen REGARDLESS of taxes. It has been proven time and time again.
Another flaw in this argument is assuming that landlords are somehow entitled to no less profit than they are currently receiving. Supply and demand drives the rental market - nothing else. This is a fact, and economists of all stripes have backed this up.
The GOP loves to put forward the little old lady who has lived in her house for 40 years and is struggling to pay her property taxes. What they fail to realize is that the little old lady in this scenario has wealth. She owns a very expensive asset!
The little old lady in question can sell her house and come into a lot of money. She can do a reverse mortgage and borrow against the value. She has options. People without property have no such options.
Most little old ladies DO NOT own houses. They rent. So if the GOP was *actually* concerned with little old ladies, they would raise Social Security payments. Then ALL little old ladies benefit, not just those who own property.
There are several theological arguments against cutting the property tax. I just happen to buy into a worldview that those who are able need to help those who are not. It is a basic organizing principle of any society, for one thing. Most major world religions subscribe to the idea of helping the poor.
“The last shall be first and the first shall be last”; “Do unto others”; and “A rich man has a better chance of putting a camel through the eye of a needle than getting into Heaven.” Each of these argues for comforting the poor and not the rich. Let’s follow this lead rather than doing more to comfort the comfortable.
GOP Legislators cannot be more intentional in screwing the middle class and poor. I certainly hope that Democrats stand and fight on this issue!
*DID YOU KNOW? The earliest known property tax records, dating from approximately six thousand years B.C., are in the form of clay tablets found in the ancient city-state of Lagash in modern day Iraq, just northwest of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 8:28 AM
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