Property Tax Deal Unravels

So last week's "historic" property tax deal is this week's absolute mess.

There's now trouble in the Senate, where the Register says a Cedar Rapids Democrat is breaking ranks on a property tax plan backed by his party leadership:

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, voted against the bill in a committee meeting this afternoon saying governments are already not meeting their basic obligations to protect the public in such areas as flood mitigation. He says cutting their future revenue collections is wrong.

“You know what destroys businesses? When government fails to do its job and protect people and property from basic things like natural disasters,” Hogg said, noting that 31 feet of floodwater in 2008 caused the city to lose more than 200 businesses.

Meanwhile, the Republican House, led by Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, who called the Senate Dem property tax plan is a "a piece of junk," is in adjournment mode. Not deal-making mode.

And urban mayors, led by Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, think the potential deals being floated are lousy for local governments, especially a provision sought by Senate Dems slicing taxes on apartment buildings:

Corbett said the big-city mayors that are part of the Metropolitan Coalition have spoken in favor of some property-tax relief for commercial and industrial property owners as part of a job-creation strategy and as long as the relief comes with a state mechanism to help local jurisdictions fill the revenue gaps caused by the loss in property-tax revenue.

“Now at this eleventh hour, the property owners are having the largest tax break in this piece of legislation for a group that won't create any jobs,” Corbett said. “So now the focus has gone from creating jobs to a special-interest tax break. It's seriously off track and needs to get back on track to discussing about creating jobs and focusing on the commercial rates.”

So with sand running swiftly out of the legislative hour glass, nobody seems to like anything. Which means this is a textbook property tax debate.

What happens if they do nothing? The stakes are probably higher for Democrats hoping to beat long odds and hold the Senate. They need some accomplishments to tout.

Republicans figure they'll run the whole works next year, after grabbing the Senate, so why compromise? I think the governor wants a deal, but if it fails, he'll just blame Democrats and argue everything will be great with a new Senate.

It's not over, clearly, but this issue is starting to smell dead.