10-year sales tax extension could be on ballot March 6

CEDAR RAPIDS - Voters could have their next say as soon as March on whether to extend a 1 percent local-option sales tax to pay for flood protection on both sides of the Cedar River.

Members of the citizen group CREST (for Cedar Rapids Extended Sales Tax) said Wednesday that they have gathered enough signatures in support of such a vote and will present their petitions to the Linn County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. That will require the supervisors to call a special election on the tax-extension question.

The next permitted date in Iowa for a special election is March 3. Only residents of Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax - all of which now have the tax in place until June 30, 2014 - along with unincorporated Linn County and the piece of Walford that's in the county would vote in a special election. All other jurisdictions in the county already have the tax in place without a sunset date or approved extending it this spring.

The CREST committee needed to collect 4,032 signatures - 5 percent of the number of voters in Linn County during the 2010 general election - to prompt the call for a special election as set out in state law.

The group's petition calls for residents to vote to extend Cedar Rapids' existing local-option sales tax for 10 years, and to use all of the revenue generated by the tax to help build a flood-protection system on both sides of the Cedar River. A vote on May 3 to extend the tax for 20 years, with half the revenue going for flood protection, 40 percent for streets and 10 percent for property-tax relief, was narrowly defeated.

CREST committee member Gary Ficken said on Wednesday that supporters have expressed to him that they liked the proposal for a 10-year extension much more than the earlier call for a 20-year extension.

“We haven't had that much pushback,” Ficken said about those signing petitions. “... I think just the change from 20 to 10 will create a much more comfortable level for voters.”