Corbett promotes flood protection sales-tax extension at State of City speech

Mayor Ron Corbett used his State of the City Address on Wednesday to tell an audience of  more than 500 that the city's flood recovery has turned the corner, that City Hall can be trusted and that extending the local-option sales tax for 20 years was necessary to help build a flood-protection system to protect both sides of the city.

The speech, which Corbett titled “Are we our Brother's Keeper?,” focused mostly with the May 3 referendum on the tax-extension question.

During the event at The Hotel at Kirkwood Center sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Cedar Rapids/Marion, Corbett said that he, the City Council and its City Hall management team had gone around and around trying to sort out how to come up with funds to protect the city against future disastrous flooding.

He took the audience through a list of questions: Do we protect? Do we protect both sides of the city? How do we get local matching funds for the Army Corps of Engineers' plan for the city, which proposes only to protect most of the east side of the city? And beyond that, how does the city find money to build the more comprehensive system to protect both sides of the river?

RELATED: Text of mayor Ron Corbett's State of the City speech

In the end, Corbett quoted Mother Teresa and said the central question was a moral one: Are residents willing to contribute to a flood-protection system that protects residents and businesses on both sides of the river even if individual residents didn't need the protection themselves?

The mayor said he has concluded, “I am my brother's keeper.”

“I believe with all my heart and all my mind that we need to protect our community - both sides - and give the business community confidence to invest and create jobs,” Corbett said. “The question is, ‘Do you and does the community believe we are our brothers' keeper?'”

Corbett said the city had limited options to raise revenue, and he said the 1-percent local-option sales tax was a better way to raise the money than raising property taxes.

The mayor sprinkled his 40-minute speech with references not only to to Mother Teresa but to Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown, the Old Testament's Book of Genesis, the ‘70s and ‘80s rock band, Queen, and Michael Jackson.

However, Corbett turned to City Manager Jeff Pomeranz for a quote to drive home another part of his message about the tax-extension referendum on May 3 - that Cedar Rapids residents needed to take the lead to finance a flood-protection system even as the city works to secure federal and state funding to help out.

“Our city manager is always telling me, ‘Nobody ever washes a rented car. It's about ownership,'” the mayor said.

“On May 3, the community will have a chance to take ownership in the future of Cedar Rapids,” Corbett said.

With the third anniversary of the 2008 flood coming in June, Corbett said the city was “turning the corner and coming to the straight away” in its flood recovery. He noted that the some 3,000 flood-damaged homes have been renovated and some 200 new ones would be built in the city's flood-damaged neighborhoods. At the same time, the city has bought out nearly 800 flood-damaged homes with another 400 or 500 to go, has demolished 800 flood-wrecked ones and is preparing to buy out 115 flood-damaged businesses, he said.

He said that the city will be breaking ground this year on a new library, Central Fire Station, riverfront amphitheater and Convention Complex while renovation takes place at the U.S. Cellular Center, the Paramount Theatre, the Five Seasons Hotel, the Veterans Memorial Building and the former federal courthouse, the new home to City Hall.

In addition, the mayor noted that Physicians' Clinic of Iowa will begin work on its new medical building at 10th Street SE, Rockwell Collins is moving 400 jobs into the downtown and a handful of other businesses are adding jobs as is Rockwell Collins. More good news is to come, he said.

“There are seven to 10 other major companies that will be announcing expansions later this year,” he said.

“Not all signs are positive,” the mayor continued. “But the optimism is better today than a year ago.”

Corbett quoted Gov. Jerry Brown of California, who has said it can be good for elected officials to “get out of their comfort zone.” Corbett said he is a little uncomfortable with his and the City Council's decision to buy the Five Seasons Hotel from its creditors as a way to make sure it gets renovated.

“(But) we are not being reckless,” he added. “None of us wants to put the city in financial ruin.

“ … When it is all said and done, you will walk into the newly remodeled Paramount, the convention center, the library, the year-round market, the fire station, the hotel, the amphitheater and City Hall and you will be proud of each of these community accomplishments.

“ … To suffer the largest disaster in the state of Iowa's history and to come back is something to be proud about.”