At a town-hall meeting at the Old Capitol in Iowa City, Chet Culver announced that he would be rolling out a $750 million bonding proposal next week.
Culver said the $750 million is needed to help rebuild Iowa and would be targeted for use in the most distressed areas of the state. While details of his proposal are not yet known, he did say that $250 million would go towards road and bridges, and $170 million would go to previously committed projects.
The other $330 million would be used on projects like Hancher Auditorium, which Culver wants to become “the best auditorium in the nation.”
Culver plans to pay for his bonding proposal with $50 million of gambling revenues for the next 20 years. According to Culver, Iowa receives $600 million in gambling revenues each year. He stated that Iowa is currently ranked 48th in the nation when it comes to debt load, and if we tripled our current debt load, that ranking would remain unchanged.
Culver justified this move away from pay-as-you-go infrastructure funding by saying, “cities and counties bond all the time.”
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