WATCH & COMMENT: Two sides on tax-extension question trade jabs at forum

CEDAR RAPIDS - The mayor and two others squared off last night in a public forum against three panelists opposed to extending the city's 1-percent local-option sales tax for 20 years to build a comprehensive flood-protection system for the city.

The three opposed to the tax extension - two of whom live in Marion, one a Tea Party member and one from a group called the Iowa Conservative Union - said the city's flood-protection plan was flawed, that the tax hurt low-income people more than high-income ones and that the city's downtown business community should pay for its own flood protection.

Opponent and Tea Party member Jim Conklin of Marion said Cedar Rapids' proposed $375-million flood protection plan - backed unanimously by two mayors, two City Councils of different compositions and two city managers - was really just a Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce plan “so they can do projects that (they) have been trying to do since the 1990s.”

Mayor Ron Corbett said the bottom line for him and the City Council in asking voters on May 3 to back the tax-extension proposal was simple: the city needed flood protection; it needed to come up with local funds to attract federal and state funds for flood protection; and the local-option sales tax was a better way to raise local funds than hiking property taxes or customer utilities fees.

Gary Ficken, a flood-impacted small-business man who also spoke last night in favor of the tax extension, noted that one advantage of the local-option sales tax is that some percentage of it - he put the percentage at 30 to 35 percent - is paid by those who live outside of Cedar Rapids but work here, visit here, shop here and use the city's streets and services. In the city's proposal, 40 percent of the revenue from the tax extension will go to fix existing streets, 50 percent for flood protection and 10 percent for property-tax relief.

Joining Corbett and Ficken on the panel in favor of the tax extension was Jim Lane, whose Cedar Rapids home and business was damaged in the flood.

In addition to Conklin on the other side of the issue was Harold Barnes, a Marion business owner and member of the Iowa Conservative Union; and Greg Vail, a member of anti-tax effort We Can Do Better CR.

Lane and Vail, both flood victims, had entirely different takes on the government's help after the flood and the need for the city to extend the sales tax to pay for flood protection.

Lane said he's not a fan of more taxes, but he said he did not mind extending the sales tax to build a community for “our grandchildren.” He said he would pick up pop cans if need be to cover the extra costs. Lane told the crowd that he had spent the day around Czech Village, where preparations are being made to move the museum and library there to higher ground. He noted a construction sign there said, “Build a Stronger Community.”

“That's what I want to see, a stronger community,” he said.

He added a lot of people talking against the city's flood protection system “don't know what they're talking about.”

Vail, who alone among the panelists last night received some applause from the crowd at Harrison Elementary School, 1310 11th St. NW, near the flood-ruined Time Check Neighborhood, said he had done some investigating and found he could build a flood protection system around his house for $25,000. Why not let him do that for 4,000 homes at a cost of $80 million, which is much cheaper than the city's proposed flood protection system, he said.

Vail said the city was not using the existing sales tax, intended for flood recovery, correctly, though he did not read the full ballot language approved by voters in 2009 when he made his point.

Ficken, who is chairman of the city's Sales Tax Oversight Committee, said Vail was incorrect and that the city had spent all $30 million in tax revenue to date for flood victims, property buyouts and property rehabilitation.

Last night's forum was hosted by ImpactCR, a community action group of young professionals, and SourceMedia Group, parent company of The Gazette and KCRG-TV. Beth Malicki, an anchor for KCRG-TV, moderated the forum. She put the crowd at about 300.

One questioner asked Corbett why he hadn't proposed a 10-year tax extension with all the money going for flood protection. Corbett said citizens always ask for better streets, and the city needs 40 percent of the revenue to fix existing residential streets, he said.

One woman complained that the city had raised the value of her home, which was flooded near Taylor Elementary School, and so her property taxes went up. She didn't seem interested in a flood protection system to protect her home.

Corbett last night seemed disheartened at one point when Vail, Conklin and Barnes joined forces to tell him that if he only helped flood victims they would support a city flood-protection system.

Corbett was the one who convinced the City Council to use the existing local-option sales tax revenue to provide direct aid to flood victims for personal possessions lost in the flood. Such an idea was not contemplated before Corbett came up with it. Some 1,900 homeowners received up to $10,000 in payments two years after the flood and 700 renters have gotten payments of up to $4,000.

Two thirds of the $30 million in local-option sales tax money spent to date from the existing tax has gone to those direct payments to flood victims.

At one point, Vail, Conklin and Barnes all said the city's proposed flood-protection system would have 31-foot-high walls, which one compared to the Berlin Wall and another to a Mexico border crossing.

Corbett noted that the city currently is protected against a flood to about 19 feet, and that new flood protection system will use mainly earthen levees that slope gradually upward to 31 feet, the height of the 2008 flood. In the downtown and at Czech Village, the city plan uses removable flood walls, which are put in place only at times of high water.

“You guys need to start looking at the plan,” Corbett told Conklin, Barnes and Vail.

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