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Committee advances $50 million water and sewer grant program bill aimed at small systems

2703148 · March 19, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

House Bill 16 81 would establish a 10-year Water and Sewer Treatment Plant Facilities Grant Program funded from unobligated interest in a state reserve; the committee voted to pass the bill after multiple municipal water leaders urged passage to address failing rural infrastructure.

State Representative Dan Vaught told the committee House Bill 16 81 would create a Water and Sewer Treatment Plant Facilities Grant Program to help small and rural systems fix aging and failing water and wastewater infrastructure.

Under the bill as presented, the program would use up to $50 million of interest swept from the state security reserve after other obligations are met; 80% of funds would target systems serving more than 1,200 people and require matching funds, while 20% would serve systems under 1,200 without a match requirement. Projects would generally need to be shovel-ready and start within one year of award; the program would sunset after 10 years.

Vaught said the measure is intended to…

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