$119 million Iowa infrastructure plan moves to full House

DES MOINES - On Earth Day, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $119 million plan to address infrastructure needs, including $8.45 million for the state water quality improvement plan.

The Iowa Water Quality Initiative isn't a new program, but it will be funded through Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund, or RIIF, for the first time in fiscal 2016, bill manager Rep. Dan Huseman, R-Aurelia, told the committee. The funds will go to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to implement conservation practices in prioritized watersheds to reduce nutrients in Iowa waters.

Beginning in 2013, the Legislature has committed $16.8 million to the initiative.

Although the bill included a $16 million appropriation to address major maintenance at state facilities, committee members were concerned the needs are growing faster than the state is addressing them.

Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, said the Legislature's first concerns should be for the public, state workers and patients at state facilities. She questioned a $500,000 grant for an outpatient therapy center specializing in brain injury rehabilitation at On With Life, an Ankeny non-profit.

She thought replacing a 19th-century lock system still in use at the Anamosa State Penitentiary should be a higher priority. HSB 246 'definitely points to our priorities,” Rep. Nancy Dunkel, D-Dyersville, who was on the subcommittee that put the bill together, said.

'We have such a long list of needs and wants,” she said, 'but trust me we have discussed that in committee.”

Not addressing maintenance comes at a cost, warned Rep. Dennis Cohoon, D-Burlington.

'If we don't do routine maintenance, it becomes major maintenance,” Cohoon said. 'And if we don't do major maintenance they become replacements.”

Huseman estimated it would take a commitment of at least $25 million to $30 million a year to get caught up on maintenance needs.

The bill would appropriate $119.1 million for fiscal 2016 and $71.9 million for 2017 - 50 percent of the 2016 budget.

Among the major line items are $30.2 million in 2016 and $33.5 million in 2017 for tuition replacement at the regents' universities to pay the debt service on academic revenue bonds.

The appropriation is not required by law, but the state Board of Regents estimates that a 5 percent tuition hike would be needed to pay the debt service on the bonds.

Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, noted that at one time tuition replacement dollars came out of the state general fund. He suggested that since it was shifted to RIIF there has been less money for major and routine maintenance.

Regents' building projects funded by the bill include $30.5 million for the Iowa State University biosciences, $42 million for the University of Iowa pharmacy building a.nd $30.9 million for Schindler Center renovations at University of Northern Iowa.