.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} The headline above is taken from the second definition in Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary. The third and more frightening definition is: the power or agency to predetermine events.

Project “Destiny” is aptly named. Project Destiny claims to empower individuals who want property tax relief, better city services and amenities with only one-third of the $75 million raised each year for 10 years being dedicated to property tax relief in the tri-county area.

Unfairly, the 17 percent increase in the sales tax hurts consumers (namely the elderly on fixed incomes, people who rent apartments and low-income families, including many in the military with spouses away on active duty) and retailers. In fact, the sales tax increase represents another challenge for small retailers working to keep customers from going to the Internet, where they pay no sales tax. If these small businesses fail, our economy and revenue base suffer.

Central Iowans for Discounted Taxes is not against bike trails, etc. What we favor are rewarding solutions that benefit everyone concerned, including government. In California in 1978, Proposition 13 discounted property taxes 30 percent across the board and the state’s economy grew at a record pace for 12 years. In 2000, New York City eliminated the sales tax on all items priced at less than $110, and tax revenues rose by $200 million in the first nine months of the reform, according to the New York Post.

CIDT is in the earliest stages of exploring the legislation required to cut our sales tax to 4.5 percent and to discount our property taxes 30 percent across the board. Our reasoning is that Iowans and Iowa will be better off when we discount our sales, property and income taxes, allowing individuals and businesses to keep a larger portion of their money than residents in competing states with higher taxes, such as Michigan.

Our approach is no different from what everyone sees every day in stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Those discounters don’t go out of business by giving us a better deal. They attract more customers by letting us keep more of our money, while supplying us with the goods we want.

Destiny is very complicated, which should always be a warning sign. In spite of promises of 100 percent accountability and transparency, taxpayers need to remember the promises surrounding Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino. We need to remember the promises related to fixing the Des Moines public schools and the missing $3 million that has yet to be found. And would this be a good time to bring up the transparency and accountability at the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium?

Instead of doing that, voters in the tri-county area should be focusing on Article 8, Section 7 of the Regional Tri-County Agreement. According to George Davey from “No Local Option,” Destiny’s principal opponent, debts related to Bravo, Principal Park, the Iowa Events Center, Blank Park Zoo, the Des Moines Botanical Center and Des Moines’ Third Street Realignment Project have to be serviced first. This raises the questions: How far can you stretch $50 million after the promised reduction in property taxes, and whose word can we take on all this?

Again, there is a better way than Project Destiny, and CIDT urges taxpayers in Dallas, Polk and Warren counties to go to the polls on July 10 to vote “no.” Then Central Iowans for Discounted Taxes and No Local Option (www.nolocaloption.com) can look into the more rewarding solutions mentioned above. This is the way to make certain everyone benefits, including government. And we promise to come up with a better name, too.

Kevin McLaughlin is president and BJ James-McLaughlin is vice president and the media consultant for Iowans for Discounted Taxes and Central Iowans for Discounted Taxes.