Majority surveyed support sales tax extension for flood protection system

Thirty-six percent of residents would “definitely” support and 20 percent would “somewhat” support extending the city's 1-percent local-option sales tax for 20 more years to supplement federal funds for a flood-protection system for the city, according to a scientific poll conducted for and paid for by Mayor Ron Corbett.

Those percentages increased in the poll when residents were asked about support for a 20-year tax extension in which half of the money raised would go to fixing streets and reducing property taxes, a concept similar to the flood protection-and-roads proposal that Corbett floated this week.

Forty-four percent of respondents said they would definitely support the tax extension for flood protection, roads and property-tax relief with another 22 percent saying they would “somewhat support” that idea.

“My goal was to test the support for funding a flood-protection system on both sides of the river,” the mayor said Friday. “And the poll shows people are open to the plan.

“It also shows that voters are in tune with challenges of our community. Citizens aren't stupid. They've lived through the flood. They are living through flood recovery.”

Thirty percent of poll respondents said they would “definitely” oppose extending the local-option tax if all the money went for flood protection, a percentage that fell to 21 percent who would definitely oppose a tax extension for flood protection, roads and property-tax relief. About 11 percent would “somewhat” oppose an extension in both scenarios.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the survey asked respondents which answer “was closer” to their opinion, and 75 percent of respondents said Cedar Rapids' existing 1-percent local sales tax - most of which is being used for renovating and acquiring flood-damaged housing, for direct payments to flood victims for personal possessions lost in the flood and for other flood-recovery needs - was “no burden” with 23 percent calling it a burden.

The existing tax, the collection of which began in April 2009, will expire June 30, 2014, without an extension. The tax now brings in about $18 million a year to the city.

Corbett and a majority of the City Council said this week that they support taking the tax-extension question to voters. They said the city won't get the flood-protection system it wants and needs to protect both sides of the Cedar River simply by waiting for the federal and state governments to pay the full bill. Federal and state money won't; the city has to look to itself to find funds to help, Corbett and other council members said.

Corbett on Friday called the poll results promising, sufficiently so that he said he will begin to publicly campaign to get the tax-extension passed to the ballot box, likely at a special election on May 3.

The Corbett-financed phone poll was conducted by Victory Enterprises, Davenport. Four hundred households participated in the poll, which has a plus/minus accuracy rate of 4.9 percent.

Another surprise in the poll, the mayor said, were responses to the city's new system of enforcement cameras to ticket speeders and those who run red lights.

To a question related to cameras, 63.5 percent of respondents said the cameras created a safer city and provided much needed revenue to the city, 28.2 percent said the cameras did little more than “squeeze” money out of motorists and 8.3 percent were undecided or didn't say.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “extremely important,” 42 percent of respondents said rebuilding the city's library ranked at 10, with another 7.2 percent ranking it at 9 and another 18 percent at 7 or 8. Only 14 percent ranked it very low, between 1 and 4 on the 1-to-10 ranking.

As for Mayor Corbett's own approval rating: 27.5 percent of respondents strongly approved of the job he is doing; 40.5 percent somewhat approved; 12.8 percent somewhat disapproved; and 11.8 percent strongly disapproved; with 7.5 percent having no opinion or refusing to say.

To the question about Cedar Rapids's direction, 55.8 percent said the city was headed in the right direction; 34.3 percent said the city was on the “wrong track”; and the rest didn't know.

As for city government, 48 percent said the right direction, 37.5, the wrong track, with the rest saying they didn't know. To a similar polling question for then-candidate Corbett from the same polling firm in September 2009, 64 percent of respondents felt the city government was on the wrong track with 23 percent saying it was going in the right direction.

On flood recovery, 18.5 percent said Corbett was doing a “very good” job on flood recovery with another 58 percent saying he was doing “a good job.” Those numbers for the City Council as a whole were 8.8 percent and 52.8 percent.

Forty-four percent said bringing jobs to the city was the most important issue facing the city while 25 percent said it was building flood protection and 16 percent said reducing the tax burden.

Sixty-eight percent said the city needed to do more to recruit new jobs to Cedar Rapids.

Sixty percent said the city's “best days are ahead” while 32 percent said the city “had lost its shine.”

Corbett Survey Memo January 2011