Marion Council Meeting: Sneak Peak at Optional Sales Tax Appropriations

At tonight's Marion City Council Meeting, members of the council will dole out details as to how they would spend funds from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), that is, if they get that money.

The Marion City Council formal session starts at 5:30 p.m. at .

LOST is an optional sales tax increase passed years ago that gave funds to various Cedar Rapids metropolitan communities for different projects.

This March, a special election will determine whether or not to extend LOST for another 10 years. 

At Tuesday's Marion City Council work-session, Marion City Manager Lon Pluckhahn, voiced his support for it.

He said before LOST, Marion was only able to do one large project every two years, but with the funding, Marion has been able to tackle infrastructure projects at a rate of two a year.

Marion City Council Member, Cody Crawford, agreed.

"There are a lot of projects that we need the money for and this is a relatively easy solution," he said.

But what is easy about raising taxes?

Crawford said that a sales tax increase does increase cost for consumers in Marion, but unlike a property tax increase, a large portion of the tax revenue will come from people outside of Marion who come to our city to shop and eat.

However, as Pluckhahn pointed out, the funding is not guaranteed. LOST originally passed by a slim margin.

That makes one point clear: Aside from any benefits from infrastructure improvements to the city of Marion, it is ultimately up to residents to decide whether they want a tax increase of any kind.