Have questions on Cedar Rapids tax vote?

CEDAR RAPIDS - Voters will decide Tuesday whether to extend a 1-percent local-option tax in Cedar Rapids for 10 years. Here are some frequently asked questions about the vote.

Question: How will the revenue from the extension of the tax be used?

Answer: At today's rate of collection, the tax will raise about $20 million a year or $200 million over 10 years. All the money will go to provide local funds to “establish and maintain” a flood protection system on both sides of the city.

Q: Will the tax extension turn the city's existing 1-percent sales tax - put in place beginning April 1, 2009, for 63 months primarily for flood recovery - into a 2-percent tax?

A: No. The existing 1-percent local sales tax runs through June 30, 2014. The extension for 10 years of the 1-percent local sales tax would begin July 1, 2014, and run for 10 years.

Q: Is the ballot language specific enough?

A: Some opponents of the tax extension say the ballot language provides the City Council with too much flexibility in how it would use the funds or they say the council will find loopholes to divert money to pet projects and away from flood protection. The City Council said the language is simple, clear and specific: The money will be used as the ballot language said, for flood protection.

Q: Why hold the vote now to extend the existing tax for 10 years when the existing tax is in place (and being used primarily for flood recovery) until June 30, 2014?

A: Mayor Ron Corbett said the city needs to build a flood protection system sooner, not later. He argues that the city will need to secure state and federal funds to help fund the project and that both the state and federal governments will require the city to provide “matching” local dollars. At the state level, a bill is making its way through the Legislature, but the city wouldn't be able to access any of the state assistance without local funds to match it.

Q: What happens to the city funds if state and federal funds needed to help with flood protection don't arrive?

A: “I have a lot of confidence that the state and federal governments will come through,” Corbett said. He noted that the Iowa Senate passed a flood protection measure to help cities on a 50-0 vote, and the matter is being considered by the Iowa House committee on Monday. The city can repeal the local tax should it determine that insufficient funds from the state and federal governments are there to help, the mayor added.

Q: Why not just build the Army Corps of Engineers' recommended plan, which protects most of the east side of the river, and leave the west side unprotected?

A: City officials say west-side protection is necessary and will protect existing businesses, neighborhoods and Czech Village and encourage investment in all three.

Q: Why is Corps' recommended plan - which will be incorporated into the city's larger preferred plan - different from the city's preferred plan?

A: The Corps' rules state it must recommend flood-protection systems that satisfy a benefit-cost ratio in which the protection doesn't cost more than the value of the property it protects. The ratio is an acceptable 1.2 for the Corps' recommended alternative for Cedar Rapids, which protects much of the east side of the river. The ratio was below the required 1 for a system that protects both sides of the river.

Q: How fancy is the city's preferred, $375 million flood protection system?

A: The city's preferred system will provide 7.74 miles of protection, 4.74 miles on the river's east side and three miles on the west, or 2.7 times more protection than the Corps' proposed 2.8 miles of protection on the east side only.

The city's plan calls for earthen levees, permanent flood walls to protect the Quaker, Penford and Cargill plants, roadway and bridge gates, pump stations, land purchases and removable flood walls through the downtown and at Czech Village.

Cedar Rapids Public Works Director Dave Elgin said the city's proposed “preferred” plan is “not going to be a Cadillac.” The city doesn't want towering, permanent flood walls downtown or at Czech Village, so the plan also calls for more expensive removable walls there.

Q. How fast will the flood-protection system be built?

A: Design work on the Corps' portion of east-side protection, which began almost a year ago, will take until sometime in 2013 to complete if funding continues to come in for it. Construction on the Corps' project could begin in 2014 and take at least three construction seasons if funding is available. The city's design work on west-side protection would take 18 to 24 months. West-side construction would follow and could proceed along with east-side constructions.

Q: Which Linn County jurisdictions vote on Tuesday?

A: Five contiguous cities in the Cedar Rapids metro area - Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax - vote under state law as one metro block. The vote passes or fails for all five based on the total vote in the block. Revenue from the tax is distributed by state formula to each of the cities for its own projects. Cedar Rapids' project is to build and maintain a flood protection system. Residents in unincorporated parts of Linn County and in the Linn County portion of Walford also vote Tuesday. All other cities in Linn County have the tax in place without an end date or extended the tax for 20 years last May.

Q: Do many cities and counties in Iowa have the 1-percent local-option sales tax in place?

A:According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, 880 of Iowa's 953 cities and 92 of Iowa's 99 counties have the 1-percent local-option sales tax in place.

The only communities or metro areas of any significant size in the state that do not have the 1-percent tax in place are Coralville and North Liberty and Des Moines and most of the suburban cities in the Des Moines metro area, according to the state agency. Only Johnson, Keokuk, Polk, Dallas, Warren, Clarke and Osceola counties do not have the 1-percent tax in place.

Q: Why not dredge the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids to provide flood protection?

A: The Army Corps of Engineers said: Dredging the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids is an “expensive” flood-protection method. It results in “limited, temporary” flood reduction. The benefits do not justify the cost. It has negative environmental effects. And any limited benefit is only sustainable with continued dredging.