Show Up! Coralville Budget Hearing!
Hi Coralville! Tuesday, April 28th at 6:30pm the Coralville City Council will have a hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget. The budget is due to the state auditor on April 30th. This is unfortunate, as our city leaders seem to anticipate little or no public input that would require changes, since they're holding the hearing only two days before the budget is due. See info here: See budget info here: https://www.coralville.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3018
The budget hearing is an opportunity to see how YOUR tax money, especially the new LOST tax funds, will be used. For example, with few eyes on the details of the 2026 budget and little community input, the Coralville Police Department added a contract with mass surveillance company, Flock, to their budget and it passed without councilors even seeing the contract. After public outcry and pressure, the contract was cancelled, but the $36,000 lost is your tax money wasted. What could we have done with that $36,000? It could have fed a family of 4 for a year, according to the Coralville Food Pantry. https://www.coralvillefoodpantry.org/give
Something to note: Coralville city leaders love to talk about how Coralville is becoming "tournament city," drawing tens of thousands of visitors for events at the Iowa River Landing and other facilities. Coralville is spending a large percentage of our LOST funds on building a new rec center with pools for statewide and national competitions and tournaments (for which the ICCSD is also contributing funds). They see this as a positive for the people who live in the community because visitors = tax revenue. But, what is a new competition level pool in Coralville going to do for you, resident who lives down the street and has to deal with the traffic this creates, the congestion and lack of infrastructure to support so many people flooding our town?
Also, with all of the tax revenue tournaments and sporting events bring to Coralville, we cannot ignore the WORKERS that make hosting these tournaments possible. Folks who live and work here in retail, food service, hospitality, and the service industry in general are often the lowest paid workers. Where is our city council's consideration for affordable housing in Coralville, for social services, and for better infrastructure and transportation for those without vehicles? Coralville's success in becoming a destination for conferences and sporting events is only possible because of the workers. I'm disappointed to see that we consistently spend less than 1% on health and social services. We need to support the people of Coralville before we keep pouring money into ways to draw more visitors.
Coralville has been controlled by real estate companies, developers, and business people for decades, either directly on city council or through influence and back door deals. Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth has controlled the city for 30 years. We're millions of dollars in debt and continue to allow developers to build unaffordable, poorly built housing and chain stores with generous tax ride offs.
Ever drive down main roads and wonder why we have so many strip malls with private equity and chain owned companies and so few locally owned businesses thriving? Ever see another construction project and find out it's yet ANOTHER mixed use ugly grey block that costs $1000/mo for a one bedroom? That's a choice. Things could be different. Come to the budget meeting, make your voices heard, and get involved in local politics. You can make a difference in your community!
MORE INFO here: https://coralvillains.org/2026/04/22/fy27-budget-public-hearing-on-april-28/