All's quiet on the LOST front

CEDAR RAPIDS - All is quiet one month before a local vote to extend the city's 1 percent local-option sales tax to help pay for a flood-protection system on both sides of the Cedar River.

The March 6 referendum is something of a do-over. In May, the tax extension in a different form was voted down. This time, backers are taking an intentionally different approach.

“Our committee just feels that the past effort was too high-profile, more of a top-down push,” said Gary Ficken, the owner of a local business back on its feet after the 2008 flood and a member of CREST, or Cedar Rapids Extended Sales Tax.

“Our committee is made up of concerned citizens, and we're communicating concerned citizens to concerned citizens,” Ficken said. “This is about people - protecting people, protecting jobs - and hopefully it's another step in healing the city. We feel flood protection gives the city a bright future. Without flood protection, we feel the community stays at risk.”

Tim Pugh, a past City Council candidate and past opponent of a sales-tax extension, said opponents have not vanished and will be at work to make an impact on the vote.

“We still have the same problem with the city and the special interests the way we always have had,” said Pugh. “We still don't trust them to spend the money the way they say they will.”

At this point last year, Mayor Ron Corbett had taken a central role in making the case for the tax extension. The Protect Cedar Rapids Committee launched a high-profile campaign with numerous media spots featuring Corbett and even professional golfer and Cedar Rapids native Zach Johnson.

“Don't you miss my face on all the TV commercials?” Corbett joked Monday.

The defeat of the tax extension measure by a small margin was sobering for Corbett and other city leaders, who had put in long hours trying to persuade state lawmakers to provide state funding to help with the city's flood protection. The state funding was premised on local funding, however.

Ficken said CREST continues to believe that most Cedar Rapidians support flood protection for both sides of the river. Many of those who voted no last year, he said, didn't like a 20-year tax extension and didn't like the revenue going in three directions: flood protection, fixing roads and property-tax relief.

So CREST collected nearly 5,000 signatures to force the March 6 vote and has come up with ballot language that shortens the tax extension from 20 years to 10 years and directs all the revenue to flood protection.

“We're just going to continue to promote the changes we've made this go-round,” said Ficken. “Ten years for flood protection. It's a shorter time frame and a single issue. I think Cedar Rapids voters like voting single issues vs. issues with a number of items attached to it.”

Corbett said some who voted no also didn't like that City Hall played a big role in promoting the tax extension. So this time, City Hall is taking a back seat, the mayor said.

Ficken said CREST's low-budget effort also gives voters a rest following the media campaign around the Jan. 3 presidential caucuses.