Group aiming to force March 6 sales tax referendum

CEDAR RAPIDS - A citizen group's petition drive in support of local funding to help pay for a flood protection system on both sides of the Cedar River is about 75 percent of the way to its goal of 4,032 signatures.

The group - called CREST for Cedar Rapids Extended Sales Tax - is working to meet a Dec. 14 deadline to prompt a vote on March 6 to extend the city's 1-percent local-option sales tax.

The 4,032 signatures represent 5 percent of the total who voted in Linn County in the 2010 general election, which is the number required to force a referendum as set out in state law.

“We'll get there,” Brad Hart, a Cedar Rapids attorney and a member of CREST's Petition Drive Committee, said this week.

CRESTs' petition calls for the city's existing 1-percent sales tax, which expires June 30, 2014, to be extended for 10 years. All of the revenue from the tax would go to help build and maintain a flood-protection system on both sides of the Cedar River.

A vote on May 3 to extend the local sales tax for 20 years went down to defeat in the Cedar Rapids metro area - Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax vote as one block - by 221 votes out of 31,932 votes cast.

Gary Ficken, CREST committee member and president of Bimm Ridder Sportswear, said this week that a 10-year tax extension with all the money going for flood protection might make more sense to voters than the ballot issue on May 3. That question had a 20-year time frame, with 50 percent of the funds for flood protection, 40 percent for streets and 10 percent for property-tax relief.

“I think it's a much clearer, easier decision for people. It's not muddied by money for streets and property-tax relief,” Ficken said.

Those who want to sign a petition or pick up petition forms can do so at either of Pierson's Flower Shop locations, 1800 Ellis Blvd. NW or 1961 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE. Al Pierson, a CREST committee member, can be contacted at 366-1826.

Petitions also can be printed out from the website at

www.crest-petition.org