The flood water is gone. Roads and bridges are open and people are beginning to rebuild, not just tear down. There was a LONG delay in the city of Cedar Rapids allowing permits to start rebuilding, due to their deciding what to do about buying-out properties that must be torn down for safety. Corridor Recovery lists 41 houses to be bull-dozed, and this may go higher. They allowed that just this week, which means Mom’s house sat empty and stripped for several weeks with no one able to work on anything.
What the FEMA Money is For
FEMA was terrific about getting funds to Mom to start repairs. The $16,000 they deposited in her account was to pay for repairs. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Only because my sister and her family are doing most of the repairs will that cover most of the basics, but only the basics. The basement jacks ($4250), new furnace, water heater, ductwork, & air conditioning ($6300), replacing all electrical (as much as $5000), joists, wallboard, insulation, underlayment, two doors and framing, several new windows and framing, plumbing, and bathroom replacements.
Mom will have to purchase washer, dryer, refrigerator, oven, bathtub, sink, and toilet. She has to purchase a table, chairs, desk, couch, carpeting, dishes. Interesting thing we found out about FEMA priotities is that if you live alone, they will only estimate replacement costs for things like one chair. Chairs are not necessities but televisions are. Other non-necessities: lawnmowers and couches.
So the $16000 is for repairs, but she was also awarded $4000 for appliances and furnishings. HOWEVER, the State of Iowa won’t release that $4000.
Taxing Our Patience
The State of Iowa has a serious money problem. Our roads are trashed from the icy winter, the floods, and shady road contracts coming to light. And yet, we have one of the highest property tax rates in the nation. No kidding. You’ve heard about New Jersey’s taxes, but Iowa has the 5th highest commercial property tax rate in the nation; our individual income taxes are 5th highest; our residential property taxes are high and based in counties which means people like me paid for the 4th of July Fair that the newspapers report as “free”. (The Tax Foundation)
Too few small businesses and workers want to be here, but we give big to corporate welfare in the form of farm subsidies (the richest farmers get the most) and tax breaks for big research companies. We don’t even have enough workers to fill the jobs we have, hence illegal immigration is thriving, and the largest immigration raid in U.S. history happened right here in Iowa, 1500 miles from Mexico’s border. This was Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, and of course, no employers were charged, just the immigrants who risked their lives and lost everything for the shot at a better life. The jobs they lost are still there, waiting for the next crop of illegals…
As for farm subsidies, ethanol would be 50 cents a gallon higher and not so competitive with gas. I say let the farmers live with the market like the rest of us and start working the oil shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. If we in the U.S. can’t live without apples from Chili and driving our SUV’s, we have to risk damaging our own country’s resources for cheap oil.
Iowa’s Telling Lies
I’m mentioning all this because I know people don’t like parting with money if they don’t have to, especially not a state near bankruptcy with a one-party government (all Democrat) that refuses to say no to special interests and pork-barrel spending and has tried to tax even our Halloween pumpkins to make up the shortfall. They repealed this tax last year after an embarrassing news story, but then tried to pass through a new bottle bill wherein bottle deposits would increase and one penny per bottle would go to the state. Failed miserably.
So, I’m wondering why, if the national FEMA agents are telling Mom she’s APPROVED for that $4000 in furnishings aid, the State has seen fit to withhold the money. The national agents told us no state has ever NOT paid what FEMA recommended. They referred us to the State’s agents, who told us two stories when Mom called them.
The first explanation was that she should have received a letter and the check to follow, which she told the agent she didn’t. The agent got condescending, saying Mom must have misplaced the letter, and no, the agent would NOT send Mom a copy of it. The second phone call made it clear the first agent flat-out lied. The agent on the second call said Mom’s case was “under review” and no, the agent had no information about what that meant, no details about how long the process would take, and Mom would be informed the result sometime in the future. Any other Iowa flood victims getting this runaround at the State level? Yes.
My husband finally went in person with my mom down to the FEMA headquarters in Coralville and talked with a State agent who said she’d heard this story a lot and didn’t know what was going on!
So, the legislature pushed through a cut in homsechool assistance programs this year, turned around and gave themselves a pay raise, and now this stalling and lying about national flood relief pay-outs. This has been my experience with Governor Culver’s State of Iowa.
My brother has been planning to retire back here to “home” for thirty years. He’s a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force and has lived all over the world. He came back to Iowa this summer, had a terrific interview with Rockwell in Cedar Rapids, and will probably pass on the job opportunity.
If I outlive the rest of my family, I may not stay in this state, either, even if that means I’m moving when I’m 90. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live in Alaska…
My posts on the flood in Cedar Rapids:
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/iowa-floods-forget-the-field-of-dreams/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/iowa-floods-this-is-what-i-do-without-internet/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/iowa-floods-clean-up-day-1/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/iowa-floods-clean-up-day-2/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/iowa-floods-clean-up-day-3/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/iowa-floods-clean-up-day-4-and-5/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/iowa-floods-fema-does-it-right/
- http://teresawymore.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/iowa-floods-liar-liar/
Filed under: events, iowa | Tagged: taxes, iowa floods, cedar rapids, FEMA, culver, alaska, ethanol, corridor recovery, illegal immigration, agriprocessors, oil shale, rockwell
Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP)
http://www.iowafiscal.org/
“As for farm subsidies, ethanol would be 50 cents a gallon higher and not so competitive with gas. I say let the farmers live with the market like the rest of us and start working the oil shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. If we in the U.S. can’t live without apples from Chili and driving our SUV’s, we have to risk damaging our own country’s resources for cheap oil.”
Here, here! Dump food-source-based ethanol and let’s drill AND process our own fuel. And let the entrepreneurs actually do the alternative fuel stuff they come up with rather than supporting the judicial ‘legislate-from-the-bench’ types that okay frivolous lawsuits to keep some of it from ever being made.
I live in farmin’ country near Iowa and have relatives who farm.
Good luck to your mom with getting back on her feet.