C.R. candidates vow to find budget savings

CEDAR RAPIDS - The word “infrastructure” has become something of a mantra among most of the 10 candidates running for three City Council seats on the Nov. 8 ballot.

But at a forum Wednesday night, few of them acknowledged just how difficult it would be to fix the city's bad streets without raising taxes to pay for it. Most of the nine candidates who participated in the event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Cedar Rapids and Marion, said they would get the money by finding “efficiencies” in the budget.

At-large candidate Carl Cortez, 66, said one thing he would not do is promise to cut taxes. He said that isn't possible in a world where the cost of living goes up each year.

Cortez is running against Ann Poe, 58, and Justin Wasson, 23, and Wasson said the current city budget was filled with a “lot of waste.” Remove the waste, he said, and the city could pay for a flood-protection system from existing property-tax revenue.

District 2 candidate Taylor Nelson, 19, said he, too, thought a flood-protection system might be built using annual property-tax revenues. Nelson is running against the only incumbent in the field, Monica Vernon, 54, and Paul T. Larson, 54, who has run unsuccessfully in the last 13 council races.

Vernon said the current City Council is saving money through efficiency in ways the public might not notice. She pointed to the new city-issued Garby garbage cans, designed to be automatically unloaded into a garbage truck that can be manned by one worker rather than two. The automation cuts down on injuries and worker's compensation claims, she said. Larson, meanwhile, suggested that the city could cut down on overtime costs by having its winter street crews work three-day weeks with 12-hour shifts.

District 4 candidate Scott Olson, 65, pointed to Cedar Rapids' relatively new fleet management division as an example of savings through efficiencies. By centralizing vehicle purchases and maintenance, he said, the move has reduced the number of city vehicles and consolidated four maintenance operations into one.

Olson, who said the city needs revenue from a sales tax because it doesn't have enough money in its annual budget to pay for flood protection, is running for the west-side District 4 seat against Jean Leaf, 70, Steve Rhodes, 59, and Cloyd “Robby” Robinson, 73, who did not participate in last night's event.

The candidates were asked what they thought about giving incentives to companies to spur economic development in the city. Vernon said that “most of the time,” companies expanding or relocating want incentives. Nelson said the city should actively welcome companies who look to expand or relocate, “but that doesn't mean subsidize them.” Larson questioned the city's past use of incentives to persuade Hy-Vee Food Stores to build a new neighborhood grocery store in the 1500 block of First Avenue NE, while Wasson said the city should not have given Physicians' Clinic of Iowa incentives after it insisted that a section of Second Avenue SE be closed for its new medical building.

Olson and Leaf both said a top economic development incentive would come in the form of a flood-protection system so companies feel comfortable investing in areas hit by the 2008 flood. Along with Rhodes, Leaf also said cleaning up the city and fixing the streets would be a great way to attract businesses to Cedar Rapids.

Many of the candidates were critical of City Hall and said officials needed to cut spending and get back to the basics.

Poe and Olson said the city needed to build on its positive accomplishments and, Olson added, “stop listening to negatives.”

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