Roughly a year after Johnson County voters passed the 2024 Johnson County Conservation bond, new projects are underway.
The bond passed with significant support last election season, garnering over 70 percent of the votes in favor of the bill. The bond allocates $30 million of taxpayer dollars for conservation projects across Johnson County for the next 20 years.
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Luke Hoffman, executive director of the Iowa Bike Coalition, said there are 46,000 cyclists in Johnson County, which generates $40 million in taxable revenue for the county. It also brings in 686 jobs per year, mainly sports retail jobs. He said the county, on average, gets back $8 for $1 spent on biking and recreation.
Biking also generates $1.4 billion statewide, and overall recreation brings in $8 billion for the state per year.
“Outdoor recreation is Iowa’s hidden superpower,” Hoffman said. “These counties that are using these bonds, this tool that’s an example of how unifying we can be if we all come together and rally around things like outdoor recreation, because it’s wildly popular, because people are getting tangible benefits out of it. They can point to in their community, like these trails and say, ‘That’s something that we did, that we supported, that I voted for.’”