Comment on Cedar Rapids City Council adopts fiscal 2022 budget to support key initiatives

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a fiscal 2022 budget to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and Aug. 10 derecho, as well as advance racial justice priorities.“Every department in the city has united around new realities as one, to rethink how we do business to deliver exceptional services to the citizens and businesses of Cedar Rapids while dealing with a pandemic and recovering from the derecho storm,” City Manager Jeff Pomeranz’s budget letter states.Among key initiatives included for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2022:• $1 million for the first year of the city’s multiyear commitment to helping fund the ReLeaf initiative, the city’s public-private partnership with nonprofit Trees Forever to replant trees downed in the derecho.