What's wrong with the Property Tax Relief part of the LOST?
1) It shifts more of the tax burden on you, the resident.
Cedar Rapids has some rather large industrial businesses. Those businesses generally pay quite a bit of property tax. However, many of them aren't affected much, if at all by a local sales tax, since many of them aren't involved in local retail sales. As these big businesses benefit from shifting the tax from the property tax to the sales tax, it means residents will pick up a greater share of the bill. It's no surprise that the Chamber of Commerce and large businesses support this tax.
2) If you don't live in Cedar Rapids, odds are your city will lose value to Cedar Rapids.
Local sales taxes tend to favor large cities, since many people living in neighboring communities shop in the city. Cities usually like such taxes because of this. Although the city benefits people living near it, many of those same people benefit the city by proving their labor. Their shopping also provides jobs in the city. It's a mutual benefit. This tax has the intention of spreading the tax base to others. By that, Cedar Rapids aims to drain money from nearby communities to fund their own projects.
3) It makes more sense to protect property with a property tax.
Flood victims were first victims of the flood. Then, many of them felt victimized by the government's handling of the flood. Sales taxes are inherently regressive. Many of the flood victims took time away from work to address their damaged homes. Their incomes went down, while their expenses went up. People that urge you to vote yes want you to help these people. Yet, their tax would takes a disproportionately high amount from the flood victims. If someone owns more land, which can benefit from protection, a property tax charges them more. If someone has flood-damaged property, the value of their property is lower, and thus they have less to protect and a correspondingly lower tax.
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