State funds for Cedar Rapids flood plan shelved until 2012

DES MOINES – State assistance for Cedar Rapids' $375 million flood protection plan didn't die with the community's defeat of a local option sales tax extension.

Instead, House Study Bill 240 that would have allowed Cedar Rapids to capture a portion of future sales tax revenue growth in Linn County to pay for flood protection has been placed in a legislatively induced coma until the 2012 session.

HSB 240 had been assigned to the House Appropriations Committee. It was to have been the subject of a subcommittee meeting Wednesday, a day after the May 2 referendum on extending Linn County's local option sales tax for 20 years. The committee did not consider the bill after the local measure was defeated by 216 votes.

Now, House leadership has decided to leave the bill on the committee agenda until the 2012 session, according to floor manager Rep. Nick Wagner, R-Marion. With no prospect of the full House taking up the bill, he said, leaders thought it made little sense to bring the bill out of committee only to re-refer it to Appropriations when the session ends.

Instead, it will remain in committee and can be resuscitated when the Legislature convenes in January 2012, Wagner said.

If it is not assigned to a subcommittee within seven days of the Legislature convening, it will die, he said.

A similar bill, Senate Study Bill 1209, won approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee. If no action is taken it likely will be placed on unfinished business for consideration in 2012.