Corbett will ask council to hold special election to extend local-option sales tax

Mayor Ron Corbett is looking to ask the City Council to hold a special election, perhaps as soon as May, to see if residents will extend the city's 1-percent local-option sales tax for 20 years to provide necessary local-matching funds to build a flood-protection system on both sides of the Cedar River.

Corbett said Wednesday that the city already knows that the Army Corps of Engineers is recommending a $100-million, no-frills flood-protection system for the east side of the river only, a plan that leaves the west side of the river and the Cedar Lake area on the east side of the river unprotected and forgoes more attractive, more costly, removable flood walls downtown.

The Corps requires a 35-percent local match for its project - a local match generally includes city and state dollars - which Corbett said means the city with the help of the state needs to come up with the Corps' match and with all the funding for west-side protection, for extra protection on the east side and for more attractive protection on both sides of the river.

The city's preferred flood-protection plan has an estimated cost of $375 million.

“So the choice in front of us, from an equity standpoint, is do we protect both sides of the river,” the mayor said. “I'm in the camp that, yes, we do need to protect both sides of the river. And I think the City Council is in general support of that.

“But it all is lip service unless we put together a funding plan to do that.”

Some 400 local households got an inkling on Tuesday and Wednesday that City Hall is exploring the idea of asking for a local-option sales-tax extension because they have been subjects of a telephone survey.

Corbett said he is using his leftover campaign funds to pay for survey, not city tax dollars, and he said he intends to do a phone survey once a year as mayor.

The survey's questions focus on flood protection, but also ask residents about the city's streets and traffic-enforcement cameras.

Corbett said his idea as of now would be to ask voters to extend the 1-percent local-option sales tax for 20 years, with 50 percent of the revenue to go to a flood-protection system and 50 percent to residential road repair.