Cedar Rapids not talking quick re-vote after sales-tax defeat

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor Ron Corbett and Mayor Pro Tem Monica Vernon said Wednesday that they have no plans and have heard of none to rush ahead with a proposal to ask voters to vote again on a local-option sales tax extension to help fund the city's proposed flood-protection system.

For now, Vernon said city leaders and community leaders who supported the tax extension want to take “some time” to try to sort out why voters rejected the measure on Tuesday. The city had intended to use 50 percent of the revenue from the 20-year tax extension for flood protection, 40 percent to fix streets and 10 percent for property-tax relief.

“Certainly, I love this community and I'm not going to give up on what I think is important,” Vernon said. “I do think we need flood protection and our streets are in horrible condition.”

It was by the slimmest of margins that the tax-extension issue went down to defeat in the Cedar Rapids metro area - Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax have borders that touch and so vote as one block in elections on questions about the local-option sales tax. Only 216 votes out of 31,924 cast separated those who voted against from those who voted for the extension in the five-city block, according to unofficial Linn County results.

In Cedar Rapids' 47 precincts, 706 more voters voted against the measure than for it among 21,660 who voted at precincts.

Another 3,364 voters cast absentee ballots in the five-city block, but the Linn County election office says it cannot now determine which cities cast which absentee votes. As a result, the exact size of the tax-extension defeat in Cedar Rapids will never be known. Of the absentee ballots, 1,765 voted for the tax extension, 1,599 voted against it.

Vernon noted that only 13 of the city's 47 precincts approved the tax extension, with 10 of the 13 among precincts on the city's east side and three of the 13 on the city's west side. Her conclusion: Both sides of the river voted against the measure. “But it was close everywhere,” she said.

Corbett said exit polling-like data is not available to explain the reasons why voters voted against the tax extension. As a result, he said he doesn't know what the city might change in the proposal defeated on Tuesday. Some more might vote in favor if the revenue was used just for flood protection, but others now might vote against it if none of the money was used to fix streets, he said.

In the end, the mayor said he did not think there was any one “overarching reason” that caused people to vote against the Cedar Rapids tax-extension proposal. He said he heard a lot of reasons from voters for voting against it, including those who noted that their Social Security payments had remained stagnant.

The Protect Cedar Rapids Committee, of which Corbett was a member, raised nearly $500,000 in its campaign to advocate for the tax extension. Corbett said he did not know what funds the committee might have left, but he didn't dismiss using any remaining funds to survey voters about out why they voted for or against the tax extension.

Q: Did the city lose its chance to obtain state funding to help pay for the city's flood-protection system?

A: It's unclear. Vernon said she wasn't sure voters on Tuesday realized how hard Corbett, in particular, had worked to position the city to get state help for the city's flood protection system, help premised on the city coming up with local matching funds. Corbett said the best-case scenario now is that the Legislature places the issue on its “calendar of unfinished business” so its eligible for consideration next year when Cedar Rapids might have different news about its sales-tax extension proposal.

Q: Does the city of Cedar Rapids need to wait a certain period of time before it seeks a new vote to extend the local-option sales tax?

A: No. However, Tim Box, Linn County's deputy commissioner of elections, says his office needs to know 84 calendar days in advance of a special election so that it can meet requirements to publish notices of a special election and to prepare ballots for it. In addition, Iowa law now limits the times in which special city and county elections can be held to the first Tuesday in March, May and August and the November general election date. The August date in 2011 is Aug. 2, which gives Cedar Rapids city officials only a few days to act if they want a revote on Aug. 2. City officials are not thinking of doing that, reports Mayor Ron Corbett and Monica Vernon, the City Council's mayor pro tem.

Q: Are the smaller Linn County towns that extended their local-option sales tax on Tuesday stuck with the extension?

A: Only the five cities in the Cedar Rapids voting block - Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax - unincorporated Linn County and the tiny piece of Walford in Linn County voted the sales-tax extension down on Tuesday. Alburnett, Center Point, Ely, the Mount Vernon-Lisbon voting block, Palo, Springville and Walker all voted to extend the existing tax for 20 years. Central City voted to extend the tax without an end date. Coggon, Prairieburg and Bertram already had the tax in place without an end d

Linn County's Tim Box says a city council in any of the cities with the tax in place can vote to repeal the tax once it has been in effect for one year and as long as a jurisdiction has not taken on debt with sales-tax revenue intended to pay off the debt. The tax extension goes into effect on July 1, 2014, in all the cities that approved the tax extension on Tuesday except Central City. It goes into effect there on Jan. 1, 2014.

Q: Will work continue on Cedar Rapids' proposed flood-protection system despite Tuesday's vote.

A: Yes. The Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday reported that it will continue the design work with existing funds for a portion of a flood-protection system for the city. That is the $104-million piece recommended by the Corps that provides protection for much of the east side of the river. The Corps' recommended plan is a part of the city's larger, both-sides-of-the-river plan. The Corps' design work does not mean Congress will help fund the project. The city also is using a federal disaster grant to help with flood protection at the Quaker plant and the city is using a combination of funds to build a piece of a levee on the west side of the river that will double as an outdoor amphitheater.