Flood bill shelved for year

A plan to allow Cedar Rapids to keep a portion of sales tax revenue to fund flood protection has been shelved, but legislative leaders promise the state will continue to support rebuilding in Iowa's second-largest community.

“I don't think we're done rebuilding Linn County for years and years,” said Speaker of the House Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, “and I think the state clearly has a role. At a bare minimum, the state has a role in the infrastructure.”

He was surprised but not shocked that Linn County voters rejected a plan to extend a 1 cent local-option sales tax for 20 years and use half that revenue to help pay for a $375 million flood-protection system.

Cedar Rapids suffered approximately $5 billion in damages from the massive flooding on the Cedar River in June 2008.

Although House Study Bill 241 was not limited to Cedar Rapids, the discussion was being driven by the city's plan to use sales tax revenue and local-option sales tax revenue to build a system of levees, concrete walls and removable flood walls and pumps to protect the east and west sides of the river.

The defeat of the local-option sales tax extension by 216 votes “scuttled the proposal for this year, but that's not to say we can't come back and look at it again next year,” Paulsen added. Local leaders “want a little more time to work on that and come up with something even better.”

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, agreed that the referendum defeat only stalled the legislation. He also pledged continued support for rebuilding Cedar Rapids, in an interview Monday for Iowa Public Radio.

“In 2008, I said at that time, this is going to be at least a decade rebuilding process, and the state intends to be a partner at some level for that entire decade,” Gronstal said. “We think it makes sense to help communities deal with the aftereffects of flood and look at the long-term.”

In the House, Paulsen has decided not to take further action on the bill this year. It will remain in the Appropriations Committee.

The bill then remains alive into the second

year of this General Assembly.

A companion bill, Senate File 532, won approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

If no action is taken, it likely will be reconsidered in 2012.