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Rural Infrastructure Authority reports ARPA deployment, asks for $24 million recurring for water and sewer grants
Summary
The agency told the subcommittee it obligated $1.4 billion in ARPA funds through a statewide competitive program, has reviewed hundreds of contracts and payments, and requested $24 million in recurring state funds to expand competitive grant programs and three additional FTEs to handle workload.
The Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA) told the Economic Development Budget Subcommittee it has obligated the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the legislature allocated and is working to spend and oversee remaining awards, while requesting additional recurring state funding to meet continuing infrastructure needs.
RIA Executive Director (presenting under the name in the transcript as the agency executive) said the agency received $1.4 billion in ARPA funding and awarded 219 grants in a competitive program that reached every county; those awards leveraged about $900 million in additional local and other funds. She told the committee RIA has reviewed 247 construction contracts that are underway and processed 362 payments totaling about $174 million to date.
RIA asked the subcommittee for an additional $24 million in recurring funds split evenly between the Rural Infrastructure Fund and the statewide water and sewer fund. The agency said predictable recurring funding would permit it to award more grants and allow local utilities to plan rather than react to urgent needs. RIA estimated that the requested funding would allow it to serve about 50 communities per year with competitive grants.
RIA also requested three additional FTEs, citing heavy workload: the agency has 17 staff managing roughly 380 projects and $1.5 billion in funding obligations arising from federal ARPA awards. The agency described its loan program (state revolving loan fund) as active, with $230 million (approx.) in pipeline lending for potable water and lead/PFAS remediation; it said loans carry attractive interest rates (~2.1% recently, rising modestly to about 2.5% projected) and reported no loan defaults since 2016 when the program moved to RIA administration.
Committee members asked how procurement is handled for projects that come in under budget and whether local governments may rebid projects; RIA staff said they review local competitive procurement and that when projects come in under budget, returned funds generally come back to RIA to be reallocated, subject to program and federal timing constraints. RIA emphasized the time‑consuming nature of design, permitting and construction and said it has established technical assistance to help localities accelerate spending before federal deadlines.
RIA said it had no proviso revisions for the committee but asked for staff capacity and recurring funding to manage continuing statewide needs.
