Iowa Senate panel approves bill creating flood mitigation fund

UPDATE: Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett says he believes prospects are better this session for a cost-sharing approach toward flood protection and rebuilding efforts in Iowa communities to clear the Legislature and get signed into law.

“I think we have a really good chance this year,” said Corbett, a former House speaker, after a Senate panel voted unanimously Wednesday to advance a flood-mitigation program that establishes a nine-member board to scrutinize applications. The program also allows qualifying local entities to capture a share of the growth in their sales tax collections to match state and federal financial assistance.

For starters, Corbett said, there are more communities that have been hit with weather-related problems – most notably towns and cities along the Missouri River and the city of Dubuque – which gives Senate Study Bill 3130 a broader statewide application rather than just being perceived as legislation that primarily would help Cedar Rapids rebuild from devastating 2008 flooding along the Cedar River.

The measure approved by a three-member Senate subcommittee would establish a 10-year state flood mitigation program capped at $30 million annually in state sales tax revenue. It would provide a maximum award of up to $15 million a year for any qualifying single community to match local and federal funds that communities would spend on flood protection projects.

The legislation, which would authorize the issuance of bonds, covers the construction and reconstruction of levees, embankments, impounding reservoirs, or conduits that are necessary for the protection of property from the effects of floodwaters. Those efforts may include the deepening, widening, alteration, change, diversion, or other improvement of watercourses if necessary for the protection of such property from the effects of floodwaters.

Sen. Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, said the bill recognizes that the state has a role to play in restoring economic vitality and preserving jobs in communities hard hit by natural disasters that have a ripple effect on surrounding areas.

Corbett said the proposal would allow Cedar Rapids to capture a portion of future growth in the sales tax revenue from the Cedar Rapids-Linn County area to pay for a $375 million system of levees, concrete walls, and removable flood walls and pumps that would be built in phases. Improvements on the city's east side of the Cedar River are projected to cost $105 million without enhancements the city prefers, with the federal government picking up 65 percent of the price tag but improvements on the west side totaling up to $185 million would have to be funded entirely by local and state sources.

“We need the state support on that,” the Cedar Rapids mayor said.

Next month local voters are being asked to extend a five-year, local-option sales tax approved in 2009 for another 10 years to carry the dedicated flood-mitigation funding stream through 2024, Corbett said.

“We believe if we get that passed and we have the state bill that passes along with the federal government that we'll be able to build our project,” he said.

Corbett said backers of the measure made a tactical error last session in tying Cedar Rapids' local matching money to a sales tax vote that failed, sinking the legislative effort in the process. He also said he has discussed the concept with Gov. Terry Branstad, who generally is supportive but hasn't seen all the details of the proposal.

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, said the Senate bill provides a mechanism for the state to become a partner to invest in “fairly intensive” infrastructure improvements that provide an essential public purpose.