Senate approves $175 million bonding plan

 DES MOINES - The Iowa Senate voted 32-18 Wednesday to borrow up to $175 million using bonding authority to fund a variety of construction projects.

More than half of the borrowed money - $95.6 million - would be used to upgrade the women's prison in Mitchellville, expand community-based corrections facilities in Davenport, Des Moines, Ottumwa, Sioux City and Waterloo, and remodel the kitchens at prisons in Rockwell City and Mount Pleasant.

Senate File 376 also earmarked $20.6 in matching funds for construction and improvements at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, nearly $10 million for lake restoration, dredging and other state Department of Natural Resources projects and $15 million for major repairs and maintenance at state facilities.

Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, the bill's floor manager, said the borrowed money will fund projects that will help Iowans recovery from a deepening recession.

"There's something in this bill that will help every neighborhood and will help every middle-class family in Iowa," he said. "This legislation is about creating good-paying jobs.

Republicans questioned pieces of what they called the "junk bond" package that would go toward restoring the Capitol, renovating the utility tunnel system at the Capitol complex, making upgrades at Terrace Hill and building an agricultural exhibition center at the Iowa State Fair. All 18 GOP senators voted against the measure.

"We have 84,000 people out of work in the state of Iowa and I'm not sure this is a good time to be mortgaging our future," said Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull. "Is this really the time that we should be spending this money or should we be looking out for the taxpayers of Iowa?"

Plans call for using annual appropriations bonds to pay off the debt, beginning with $9.3 million in fiscal 2011 and then $13.9 million yearly payments through 2033. Total debt service would be $316 million over the 20-year life of the bonds.

"This legislation is just spend, spend, spend and spend some more," said Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View.

The proposed bonding package comes a year after state officials sought to borrow money for essentially the same projects that were to be backed by tobacco settlement money, but a sour bond market scuttled that plan.

Contact the writer: (515) 243-7220 or rod.boshart@gazcomm.com