Army Corps coming up short of funds

CEDAR RAPIDS - By fall, the Army Corps of Engineers is to have a detailed alignment plan for east-side flood protection in Cedar Rapids. It just may not have the money to pay for it.

Congressional funding for the $12.4 million design and engineering phase of the $104 million Corps project will run out long before the pre-construction work is complete.

“They're $6 million short,” Mayor Ron Corbett said.

With Congress aggressively cutting spending, it's unknown when funds to complete the design, let alone construction, will be provided.

“Certainly, everything in Washington is in a state of flux,” Corbett said, “and now with this Aaa bond-rating fiasco that just took place and the deficit reduction fiasco, (congressional funding for flood protection) has taken a big back seat.”

He said funding is unlikely to be approved this year.

Federal funding is so iffy that the Corps will seek an amendment to its contract so it can continue design work using mostly city revenue, said Tom Heinold, the Corps' program manager for the flood-protection project.

The contract calls for the federal government to pay 75 percent of the cost, the city 25 percent. The contract also calls for the city's share to be drawn down at the same rate as the federal share.

Heinold said the Corps has less than $1 million left of the $3.2 million in congressional funding received to date. So it must use all the estimated $2.2 million left of the city's $3.1 million share. Without additional funds from Congress, design work will likely stop by October 2012, he said.

Heinold said Corps representatives and city officials have had a frank discussion in recent days on the project's status. He said the Corps has no control over when federal funding might become available to complete the design and start construction.

“If you were a legislator and the budget was tight and we were trying to figure out how to cut things, would you be in a position to authorize a whole bunch of new projects that needed even more money?” Heinold said. “I'm not sure that washes.”

Earlier this year, city officials had hoped to secure initial federal funding for construction of a Cedar Rapids flood protection system. They also had hoped local voters would extend the city's 1 percent local-option sales tax to help. Voters rejected it.

“We had a setback locally, and now we're getting a setback at the federal level,” Corbett said.

Corbett will lead a delegation to Washington in October and to the Iowa Legislature next year looking for state funding.

In addition, a grass-roots effort is under way in Cedar Rapids to collect signatures to force another vote on extending the local-option sales tax.

Comments: (319) 398-8312; rick.smith@sourcemedia.net

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