Cedar Rapids may advance buyout funds

Some can't wait anymore.

That's the thought of Mayor Ron Corbett, who wants to create a “hardship advance” for the most cash-strapped of the 1,300 property owners who have been waiting 19 months for a city buyout of their flooded property.

Any such advance would be paid back to the city when the buyout is complete and the property is sold to the city.

“This isn't a cash-advance program (for the many); it's a hardship program,” Corbett said Tuesday.

The city, he added, would establish a mechanism to identify those who truly need an advance of their buyout money, if the City Council approves a hardship program at its Wednesday evening meeting.

Corbett said he worries that some people in the worst financial position may need money so badly that they will rush to agree to the buyout price and forego procedural steps that allow for a new appraisal and an additional appeal. A hardship advance would buy those people some time to take advantage of the due process, the mayor said.

City Manager Jim Prosser suggested that such a hardship program would be steered toward a small number of people on the verge, for instance, of losing property or going into bankruptcy.

Council member Chuck Wieneke, who has been the council's leading voice on buyouts, agreed that only a limited number of people might need such a hardship program.

Corbett doesn't see it that way.

“I think there's a great need out there, and I think we're underestimating the financial strain that people are under right now,” the mayor said.

The city is prepared to pay property owners 100 percent of pre-flood assessed value for their properties, but Corbett is still pushing to amend the city's buyout plan and pay more.

That extra money would come from the federal government.

He has asked the Iowa Department of Economic Development to investigate if the city's plan can be amended.