Linn County may use federal funds to make up flood abatements

Somebody has to pay for tax abatements for flood victims, and it looks like that somebody will be the federal government.

Linn County has forgiven about $547,000 in property taxes owed by flood victims, for the period of time after the flood when they could not use their property.

“What we're mainly concerned about is the general fund loss, and that's $448,681,” said Dawn Jindrich, Linn County budget director.

She told the Board of Supervisors Wednesday that the best way to solve the problem is to wait for a new grant from the federal Economic Development Administration, which supervisors expect will give Linn County and the city of Cedar Rapids about $2 million for the joint government fiber-optic network, which the county helps fund through its capital projects budget.

The county would take property tax dollars out of the capital projects budget, fill in the gap in the general fund, and throw its $1 million share of the EDA grant into capital projects.

The county is in the third year of its five year, $3 million commitment to a fiber-optic network between county and cities and school districts in the metro Cedar Rapids area. The project's total cost is about $10 million, and it is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011.