Linn communities have different plans for tax funds

With most of the attention on Cedar Rapids and its flood-protection plans, officials of its neighboring cities face a balancing act in writing their ballots for Tuesday's local-option sales tax referendum: find a convincing use for the extra revenue a tax would bring while leaving options open should it fail.

“We don't have the same need for it per se as Cedar Rapids, but the reason we're having this discussion is because of the flood,” said Fairfax Mayor Jason Rabe. “If the surrounding communities are going to have (the tax) and that's where we spend the majority of our dollars, we'd like to see some benefit.”

The three neighboring cities are part of the metro voting bloc. That means the option tax in each is subject to the overall metro vote total. If the tax passes in the metro area but is rejected by voters in any city, that city will receive its share of tax proceeds but won't be subject to the restrictions in its ballot language.

The Fairfax City Council adopted a vaguely worded ballot calling for its share of revenue to go to “any lawful purpose.” But the city has tentative plans for the about $250,000 a year the tax would generate. The city's budget calls for $5.4 million in spending.

“We have a CIP (capital improvement project) plan that covers the next 10 years,” Rabe said. “If it passed, we'd plug that right in there.”

That would include street improvements and the extension of city water and sewer lines to outlying neighborhoods.

“Currently we've used it for quite a few different things and it's been quite beneficial,” Rabe said.

After 30 percent for property taxes, Marion would spend half its estimated $4.3 million a year on street work, with the balance going for construction, repair or improvements to city buildings. The language allows the city to allocate that 20 percent for “community projects consisting of any general or essential corporate purpose.”

Mayor Paul Rehn said local-option tax revenues have been penciled in for only five years, two fiscal years past the expiration of the current option tax.

“Beyond that it gets very difficult, because our crystal ball isn't any better than anyone else's,” Rehn said. “The key thing for the people to remember is that the ballot language requires that whatever the projects are they fit within those three categories.”

The city's presentation on the tax emphasizes continued sales tax revenue would reduce the need to borrow for three projects: A new city fitness center, an expansion of the public library and replacement of Marion's police station.

Rehn said the nearly 30-year-old police station will be replaced regardless of Tuesday's result.

The city has hired an architect for early planning and design work for a new station that would triple the current 15,000 square foot station and include room for expansion. The new building could cost as much as $11 million.

“We're doing the planning with the assumption the option tax would be the preferred way and the cheapest way, but we're going to go ahead with this project,” Rehn said.

Assistant Marion library director Jo Pearson said the state's fourth-busiest library has outgrown its building, opened in 1996.

“We had to give up one of our meeting rooms last summer. We turned that into storage space, and there's high demand for them,” Pearson said.

Pearson said an expansion would include meeting rooms and space for the library's expanding collection. A conceptual drawing has the expansion “wrapping around” the present building, which would eliminate its parking, Pearson said.

A 2005 space analysis predicted the 24,500-square-foot building would need more than 56,000 square feet to handle needs through 2030, said library board President Jack Zumwalt. The library foundation has purchased the old post office next door for parking when an expansion occurs.

“We need to expand, regardless of the outcome of next week's vote,” Zumwalt said.

Hiawatha, whose ballot language is similar to Fairfax's, would stand to receive just under $870,000 with the new tax, but is figuring on just $750,000 for street work and water, sewer, and parks improvements, Mayor Thomas Theis said.

“Until we know what we have, we're just not going to start counting anything,” said Theis.