Cedar Rapids silent on potential threat to traffic-camera revenue

CEDAR RAPIDS - All was quiet on the traffic-camera front.

At last night's nearly three-hour annual budget meeting, none of the eight City Council members who participated asked City Manager Jeff Pomeranz how he would cover $3 million in revenue losses to the city if the state forces the city to remove its traffic enforcement cameras.

Council heaped praise on Pomeranz for presenting a balanced, $116.7 million general fund operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, a budget that could swing out of balance if the some or most of the camera revenue vanishes.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has told the city it will decide later this month on the cameras, some of the highest revenue-producing ones on Interstate 380 of which do not comply with the DOT's new rules on camera placement.

After the meeting, Mayor Ron Corbett said, 'What's the use of speculating about speculation.”

Corbett said the DOT understands that cities in Iowa are finalizing their budgets for the new fiscal year and he said the DOT knows the fiscal ramifications to the city of Cedar Rapids' budget should the state agency shut down some or all of the city's cameras.

'We feel confident in our position on the cameras. We've given the state some common-sense options,” the mayor said.

Council members Monica Vernon and Kris Gulick said council members have been discussing the pending DOT decision on the city's network of traffic cameras for some months even though no one talked it about it during last night's meeting.

Gulick said Pomeranz had an assortment of options to replace the $3 million in camera revenue should it vanish. Options include increasing the city's franchise fee on local electric and natural gas bills from the present 2 percent, he said.

A 1 percent increase in the franchise fee would raise an additional $2.7 million a year for the city, Finance Director Casey Drew said Wednesday.

Gulick also said the council might be forced to ax from the new budget some of the spending additions it plans to add.

Those include three new police officers to begin to build a seven-officer Police Communication Action Team, two new economic development staff members, a new housing inspector for the city's nuisance property abatement program and $127,000 for a concentrated maintenance program for city parks in and near downtown.

Vernon said it would be difficult to make cuts in the city's proposed balanced budget that she said is not funding other crucial needs. She pointed to the additional officers that Police Chief Wayne Jerman had sought for his neighborhood action team and didn't get.

A loss of much or all of the camera revenue could require the city to raise its tax levy rate in upcoming years, Vernon said.

Gulick said the only sleep he is losing right now centers on what else the state might do to Iowa cities that he doesn't yet know about.

He pointed to the state decision in the last couple of years to cut property taxes on commercial and industrial properties to 90 percent of value, a decision that has meant $4.1 million in less revenue for the city's new proposed budget. Fortunately, for now, the state is agreeing to reimburse cities for the lost revenue, he said.

Council member Justin Shields, who heads the council's Public Safety and Youth Services Committee, said he doesn't believe the city is going to lose any traffic camera revenue.

'I have faith in the DOT,” Shields said. 'Our goal is not to catch speeders, it's to slow the traffic down. It's not about money, and I think the DOT will understand that.”

Corbett called the Pomeranz budget 'pro-growth” and said it had funding for some 'critical unmet needs” while keeping the city's tax levy rate the same as it has been for seven years, at $15.22 per $1,000 valuation.

The tax levy rate, which local government and school districts can lower to reduce taxes and raise to increase them, is one part of the calculation in determining a property owner's tax bill.

In Pomeranz's proposed budget, taxes for residential property owners are slated to increase 2.4 percent or $30 a year for the owner of a $150,000 house. At the same time, taxes will go down 5.26 percent for commercial and industrial property owners or $760 a year for the owner of a $1 million commercial property.

The increase and decrease in the actual tax bills is tied to the percentage of value of a property subject to tax. That percentage is up for residential owners, down for commercial and industrial owners because of actions by the state.

The council votes on the final budget on March 12.