DART funding concerns. Campaign donation totals. Business Record subscribers. And lung cancer.
12/6/2023DART recently released information on how much Des Moines and the surrounding communities contribute to the public transportation service. They say a 40% cut to their services is looming if additional funding is not received. Des Moines has contributed $9.8 million this year, but under the new funding formula needs to see that number rise to $17.5 million in 2029.
The two largest contributors to DART’s funding through property taxes are Des Moines and West Des Moines with Des Moines planned to contribute $9,846,235 in the 2024 fiscal year, or $103.84 per taxpayer of a $200,000 home, and West Des Moines at $5,216,974, which would be $94.19 per taxpayer. Other contribution numbers of note, and the second-highest contribution per taxpayer, belong to Windsor Heights at $102.62, despite having the lowest total contribution number of $236,908. Ankeny, Clive, Johnston and Urbandale will all surpass $1 million in contributions.
DART provided information stating the average number of riders per hour on DART buses is 17, with the number rising to 27 at peak hours on its busiest routes. Sixty one percent of riders do not have a valid driver’s license, and 61% also do not have a vehicle. Forty-three percent of DART riders have an annual household income of less than $20,000 and fewer than 60% have an annual income of less than $30,000.
DART says some of the service cuts suggested if they aren’t able to gather more funding would lead to longer wait hours and fewer route options. Two solutions were proposed, one would be to continue serving all of their current routes but with less frequency. The other is serving fewer destinations but serving those routes more frequently. DART named its higher ridership routes as 3, 6, 7, 15, 16 and 17, which would continue to run seven days a week but instead of routes running every 20-30 minutes, they would run every 60 minutes. DART says this would also heavily lower the amount of bus service on weekends and almost entirely eliminate it on Sundays.
The Iowa Legislature gave the City of Des Moines the option to increase its franchise fee, a tax on gas and electric bills, up to 2.5% in order to fund DART. This means the city could lower the amount it collects from property taxes for the next few years. If the city decides to continue to fund DART from property taxes only, the cut in services would take place.
On Nov. 28, Grimes City Council voted to withdraw from their DART membership, “The cost-benefit analysis just doesn’t make any sense,” said Grimes City Administrator Jake Anderson. “We maybe have 13 unique riders in the community.” Grimes contributes $645,919 of taxpayer money to DART, or $60.63 per taxpayer. At that cost, Grimes could buy a vehicle for each DART rider and be money ahead.
In the most recent election, Des Moines voters approved the terminal expansion at the Des Moines International Airport. According to DART’s numbers, DART served 3.2 million passengers, while the airport served slightly less than 3 million. Of course this includes a lot of duplication. …
Des Moines city council elections are in the books, and so are their campaign contributions. CITYVIEW pulled the available donation numbers for those running for city council positions that had a committee viewable on the IECDB’s (Iowa Ethic and Campaign Disclosure Board) searchable database, starting from the beginning of 2023.
Ward 1. Winner of the Ward 1 seat Chris Coleman raised $41,150.17 from 122 donations. His largest donation of $2,500 was reached four times by Douglas Mcaninch, Rick Tollakson, Galinsky Family Real Estate and Dawn Thorton. Coleman also had two $1,500 donations from Will Knapp. Runner-up Rob Barron pulled together $19,656 for his campaign with 148 total donations. His largest was $1,000, of which he had four, from Fred Hubbell, 6236 Laborers’ PAC, #6334 Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 33, and Jack Hatch. Kathy Hellstern received a total of $1,615 from 13 donations, with the largest being $500 from Ta-Yu Yang. RJ Miller’s campaign donation total came in at $764 from nine donations, the largest being $400 from himself.
Ward 2. Incumbent and winner of the Ward 2 seat Linda Westergaard received the largest total amount of $90,829.04 for her campaign from 159 contributions. Westergaard’s largest donation came from the Realtors Political Action Committee at $25,000. Runner-up Chelsea Lepley gained $32,623.05 for her campaign from a total of 296 contributions, with the largest donation coming in at $1,800 from FILDI Game Studio, LLC.
Ward 4. From 105 donations, incumbent and winner of the Ward 4 seat Joe Gatto received $78,315 for his campaign with the largest donation being $5,000 from J. Elder II. Jason Benell’s campaign saw him raise $12,415.50 from 114 contributions. His largest donation was $1,500, which he received twice, both from Timothy Urban.
At-Large. Incumbent and winner of the At-Large seat, Carl Voss, raised the second most amount of money between all city council candidates with $85,654 from the most total donations, 397. Voss’ largest donation came in at $5,000 from Richard Voss, and he received 26 donations of $1,000 or more.
All in all, $363,021.76 were donated to the Des Moines city council campaigns in the year of 2023 with 1,363 contributions in total. …
In its Oct. 20 edition, the Business Record published its statement of ownership, management and circulation, as required by Iowa law for paid subscription newspapers that receive discounted postal rates and taxpayer-funded advertising from public entities. According to the numbers in the statement, the weekly newspaper’s total number of single copies published nearest to the filing date was 5,400, with the average number of copies during the last 12 months being 5,417. Meanwhile, the total paid distribution on average for each issue in the last 12 months was 2,582. According to the U.S. census, as of 2021, there were approximately 17,000 “employer establishments” in Polk, Warren and Dallas Counties. Using those numbers, approximately 15% of all businesses in the three-county area are paid subscribers to the Business Record. But, of course, they “don’t count the number of people they reach” because “they reach the people that count.” Seriously. …
In a recently released national report by Code.org, Iowa ranked as the seventh-best state for providing computer science education in public schools K-12. During the 2022-2023 school year, Iowa schools increased the amount of foundational computer science opportunities they provided from 71% to 83%. In the 2017-2018 school year, that number was 48%. From the report, when it comes to geographical location, 93% of suburban schools offered computer science opportunities, rural schools were at 85% and urban schools at 71%. …
DMACC broke ground on a new $9 million transportation institute on Nov. 14. This is a two-phase project that begins with a new, 8,600-square-foot building that will include classrooms, a three-story inspection bay and student study space. The current institute’s 12-acre concrete training course where students practice driving techniques will be replaced. The second phase of the project will be to tear down the existing DMACC Transportation Institute that was built in 1988. The building is set to be named after DMACC alum Dennis Albaugh who donated $1 million toward the project. Other funding came from a $1 million grant from the State of Iowa, a $500,000 donation from the Kent Corporation and a $50,000 contribution from Bob and Jane Sturgeon. …
A report from the American Lung Association revealed that Iowa is the 12th-worst state in the nation for lung cancer cases. The report also showed that Iowa is 10th-best in early diagnosis, and 11th-best for lung cancer screenings. Iowa saw 61.14 new cases per 100,000, which is higher than the national average of 54.6 per 100,000. Why so much cancer in Iowa? According to the report, Iowa has some of the highest levels of radon in the country, which is the second-leading cause of lung cancer. ♦
