LOST revote prospects looking hazy

There is a midsummer haze hanging around the prospects for a revote on the one-cent, local-option sales tax.

After the tax was licked by a popsicle-stick-thin margin in early May, it seemed likely that backers would regroup and stick the tax on the ballot in November. That flood protection system isn't going to build itself.

But now, in the humidity of July, that urgency has wilted. After talking to several folks involved in the issue, I get the impression that continued tactical reassessment currently holds the lead over a new fall offensive in the revote strategy race. And by race I mean more of a leisurely saunter.

Perhaps it would be best to wait until March. Maybe the library board's bid for a higher levy rate should go first. We probably should have an solid idea of how much money there is to operate that library before it's built.

Decisions. Let's have another Mai Tai and think it over.

“I think there's a split vote on the revote,” said Al Pierson, a tax backer and owner of Pierson's Flower Shop, a flooded west side business. “I'm 50-50 myself. It's coming down to the wire.”

To have a November vote, all the various procedural ducks must be in a row by August 16, or one month and nine days from today. If supporters hope to mount a petition drive, they need 4,032 signatures by then. Or the City Council can vote to put it on the ballot. The ballot language is due Sept. 2.

But various council members, including Mayor Ron Corbett, have said a tax mulligan should not be called by the council. Who exactly will take the lead is not clear yet, either. Corbett and other supporters are poring over polling data conducted since the vote to determine what the next ballot measure should look like, or if they should bother at all.

They haven't shared those findings yet, but Corbett said recently on WMT radio that the 20-year time frame was the most common reason voters said no.

There's been some preliminary courting of tax opponents, including Linda Seger, president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association. Seger, who rebuilt her flooded home, favors some sort of west side flood protection, but is still skeptical of the city's plans.

"I'll go and listen to what they have to say," Seger said. She thinks November is too soon to revisit the issue.

I know it's fashionable to blame the west side for killing the tax. But, according to numbers from the county auditor, it actually passed in four of six precincts covering the core of flooded west riverbank neighborhoods. (It passed in precincts 19, 20, 6 and 4 and failed in 7 and 18.) Add the votes from those precincts together, and the tax prevailed there by 135 votes.

It was close, and turnout was too low, like every place else in town. There's plenty of blame and credit to go around, depending on your perspective.

Getting people such as Seger on board will be critical to building real, broad support. Without it, passage is doubtful. That means replacing suspicion and blame with buy-in. That's going to take time, lots of it.

So will transforming the stubborn public perception of the city's flood protection plan from an expensive edict into a responsible, necessary investment. Again, that's not going to happen in the next several weeks.

Looking through all the haze, March seems smarter.

Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@sourcemedia.net