Playing it straight by exiting the voter bypass

Voters. What are you gonna do with them?

Well, if you're Stacey Walker, you smartly decide to let them decide whether you should represent District 2 on the Linn County Board of Supervisors, instead of seeking appointment to the seat just weeks before a contested primary. Walker's opponent in the Democratic primary, Dick Hogan, came to that conclusion much sooner, arguing, also smartly, that making a candidate an instant incumbent wouldn't be fair to opponents or voters.

Walker's backers had urged a panel made up of the county auditor, recorder and treasurer to appoint him to a seat vacated by Supervisor Linda Langston. But upon what Walker called 'further consideration” in an op-ed this week, he nixed the appointment idea.

'When voters cast their ballots and select a new County Supervisor in November, no county elected official - no matter how ornery or unrelenting - can claim that any special advantage gave the winner an edge. There will be no grounds to delegitimize the victory,” Walker wrote, taking a pretty obvious jab at Auditor Joel Miller, who voters also keep electing.

For Cedar Rapids city leaders, voters may be seen, but not always heard.

Just more than five months ago, voters in Cedar Rapids shot down a 27-cent public library levy. At 55-45, it wasn't close. Among the city's 43 precincts, the levy was defeated in 33 of them, including 19 where the no vote topped 60 percent.

Yes, turnout was a dismal 16.2 percent, with just 14,033 people bothering to cast ballots. But unless you're asking to turn the library into a casino, that's about as broad a verdict as you're going to get.

No matter how you slice it, it's tough to conclude from those numbers that Cedar Rapids residents want to pay higher taxes to support their public libraries. And yet city leaders now are considering raising the city's property tax levy by 15 cents over five years to fund library operations.

Mayor Ron Corbett, city council members Justin Shields and Ralph Russell and library Director Dara Schmidt floated the plan last week. Corbett says it's a more 'modest” and 'reasonable” alternative to the 27-cent levy.

Look, I love libraries. In our increasingly clueless and divisive times, institutions that educate and bring us together have my support. Clearly, elected city council members have the power to raise taxes to pay for them.

And, before that library levy vote, it might have been a fine plan. But now that voters have weighed in, taking the issue out of their hands is a bait-and-switch maneuver. The only good faith course of action is to take a more modest, reasonable proposal back to the ballot in 2017.

I certainly don't want to see the library's hours and programs further slashed. Libraries are a basic service that deserves stable funding. But elections carry risks and yield consequences. Shooting for a maximum 27-cent levy with no sunset appears now to have been an overreach. A smaller increase may win approval. Voters need to be asked.

Leaders say even with the 15-cent boost, a library levy might be needed later. Under that scenario, I seriously doubt it would be approved. Voters. They don't like being bypassed.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com