• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Politics / Govt / Cities hope for more bonding authority

Cities hope for more bonding authority

May 11, 2009 By admin

Cedar Rapids city leaders are pushing for the governor to sign a bill that would allow communities to issue multi-million dollar bonds without public approval. Local governments in Iowa can already sell certain bonds without a vote, but a bill before the governor would allow disaster affected cities and counties to undertake bonding projects worth more than three million dollars.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Kay Halloran says the bill would allow the city to rebuild flood damaged facilities more quickly. "As long I have been in public life, the legislature has kept a real tight lid on anything cities wanted to do. In fact, they wanted to starve cities," Halloran said.

Under current rules, cities must receive 60% voter approval for expensive bonding projects. Halloran says if the bill is signed it would still give voters an appropriate check on city government.

"If we’d really done something, absolutely, totally stupid, that everybody agreed was stupid, they could have a way to keeping us from doing it – but for the most part, under normal circumstances, public officials aren’t going to go out and do stupid things because they have an election to face," Halloran said.

The new provisions would allow citizens to collect petition signatures to force a vote on bonding projects. Supporters say some of the bonding money might only be needed to pay for upfront costs that would later be reimbursed by state and federal government.  

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Politics / Govt Tagged With: Chet Culver

Featured Stories

Senator Ernst says Russian ban shows she’s doing something right

Bill creates new deer hunting season, with AR-15s

Governor signs Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard into law

Jury returns guilty verdict in shooting death of State Trooper

A haboob, a dust storm black out, hits northwest Iowa

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa’s Huckstorf garners national award

Iowa Special Olympics Summer games set to open in Ames

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC