Linn supervisors OK March 6 for local-option tax extension election

A 10-year extension of Linn County's 1 percent local sales tax will go to voters March 6, county supervisors decided this morning.

With little debate, the supervisors unanimously passed a resolution verifying 4,797 signatures on petitions seeking the election in parts of the county that don't already have the tax - Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Fairfax, Walford, and unincorporated areas - and setting the vote for the earliest possible date.

Formal ballot language must be adopted by 60 days before the election - Jan. 6. The group that conducted the petition drive want to extend the optional 1-percent sales for 10 years to raise revenue for flood protection on both sides of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids. Each city council decides how to spend sales-tax revenue raised in their city.

If approved, the extension would run through 2024, taking effect after the present local-option tax expires in 2014.

A proposed 20-year sales tax extension, with revenues dedicated to flood protection, street repairs, and property-tax relief,  narrowly failed last May. Supporters plan to offer cleaner ballot language in their second run, allocating all revenues over 10 years for flood protection.

Supporters had to collect signatures of 5 percent of those voting in the last general election - 4,032, in this case.

County jurisdictions not named in the resolution won't vote in March because they've already adopted the sales tax without a sunset date.

LOST Resolution