Representatives of Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy coalition are traveling around the state, making their case for a three-eighths cent increase in Iowa’s sales tax to fund natural resources initiatives. Randy Munson of Ankeny is State Council Chairman for Ducks Unlimited.
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In 2010, 63-percent of Iowa voters backed the creation of the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund. Six years later, the fund remains empty because it requires the three-eighths of a cent sales tax increase. A large chunk of the fund would support clean water initiatives, something Munson says farmers would welcome as they apply pieces of the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
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The coalition released a study that identifies over $673 million worth of “fully planned projects” that could be completed with money from a three-eighths penny sales tax increase. Munson says many of those projects would improve parks, hiking and biking trails, and other outdoor recreation areas statewide — and provide a boost to rural communities.
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