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State representative urges Lake County voters to back May 6 Issue 2 to renew state infrastructure program
Summary
State Representative Troy addressed commissioners to urge support for State Issue 2 on the May 6 ballot, saying the reauthorization would continue a program that funds local infrastructure projects and has delivered roughly $35 million to Lake County over the life of the programs he cited.
State Representative Troy urged the Lake County Board of Commissioners on April 17 to encourage local voters to approve State Issue 2 in the May 6 special election, saying the measure would reauthorize a state capital improvements program that funds infrastructure projects at the local level.
Why it matters: the proposal would permit the state to issue general-obligation bonds for infrastructure over the next 10 years; local governments apply to score and select projects. Representative Troy said local project selection and prior rounds of the program have produced multimillion-dollar grants and interest-free loans for Lake County projects.
Troy told commissioners the existing authorization expires July 1, 2025, and described the measure as a 10-year reauthorization. He said the current program runs at $200 million a year and that the proposed reauthorization would increase the program to $250 million a year (a total of $2.5 billion over 10 years) to reflect inflationary pressures on infrastructure costs. Troy described the financing as general-obligation bonds backed by existing state receipts and said it does not raise taxes at the state or local level.
Troy listed several Lake County projects that received support from the state program, including trunk-sewer rehabilitation on Grama Court, Lakeshore Boulevard waterline replacement and Vine Street waterline replacement. He said Lake County has received about $21,000,879 in grants and $4,500,000 in zero-interest loans through the SCIP program, and roughly $9,300,000 through the Local Transportation Improvement Program (LTIP), totaling over $35 million across the programs over time.
Troy described the program as a partnership between state and local governments and urged the commissioners and residents to vote on May 6 and to support State Issue 2.
The presentation included a broader discussion among commissioners and the representative about the state budget, recent votes on a proposed stadium subsidy, property-tax relief proposals and a provision Troy called the “Medicaid cliff” that he said could reduce the federal/state match and thereby remove Ohio from Medicaid expansion; he estimated significant numbers could lose coverage if that change occurred. Those budget comments reflected the representative’s assessment and were debated on the record.
Representative Troy concluded by urging local support for the reauthorization and by noting that the program decisions are made at the local integrator and district levels before state review.
The commissioners did not take a formal vote endorsing the ballot issue during the meeting.
