Gazette coverage plans for March 6 local-option tax vote

We are stepping up our coverage of the pending March 6 local-option sales tax vote in the Cedar Rapids metro area, rural Linn County and Walford.

We took a look on Feb. 16 at plans Linn County communities other than Cedar Rapids have if the tax passes there. This is a countywide vote, after all, with the exception being places that approved the tax last year.

On Sunday, Feb. 19, we took you to the Time Check Neighborhood for a sampling of sentiment there about the tax. We also had a story on how the city is considering options for redevelopment in the flood zone.

In the next couple of weeks leading up to the tax vote we plan to:

-- Explore whether plans exist for commercial development west of the Cedar River, especially given the attention the east side is getting. That story is planned for next Sunday, Feb. 26.

-- Review what the city selected some time ago as its preferred plan for flood protection. We want the story to answer questions such as how much this would cost, what kind of protection it would provide, how the city decided upon the plan and from where funding would come.

-- Report on how local-option sales tax money collected to date has been spent.

-- Show what kind of risks businesses in areas such as New Bo and Czech Village have taken financially to return to the flood zone expecting flood protection.

Our goal is to give you loads of information in a dispassionate manner so that you can make your decision about whether or not to extend a 1 percent local-option sales tax in Linn County for 10 years, from its current June 30, 2014, expiration to June 30, 2024.

I use the word dispassionate because so much passion exists among people who have deep interests in how this vote turns out. That is to be expected when taxes are involved but also when you are dealing with the tender nerves that still exist from the Flood of 2008 and also last May's attempt at a 20-year extension that failed by 221 votes.

In next month's tax vote, Cedar Rapids would be bound to use the tax revenue “to establish and maintain a flood protection system on both the east and west sides of the Cedar River,” the ballot states. How the council would deal with that language is one of the questions tax opponents have because the Cedar Rapids City Council could pass an ordinance to use LOST revenue from an urban renewal area on that urban renewal area. The council only could use direct growth in revenue for the urban renewal area, but that possibility exists.

Any move in that direction would have to be done in open meetings and you could call it a given that it would cause a serious uproar in the city.