East Range water project asks legislature to fix WIF cap language so Aurora can qualify for larger grant
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Summary
A bill to clarify that a 2025 increase to the Water Infrastructure Funding (WIF) cap applies to the East Range Water project would allow Aurora to reach the program's affordability threshold and avoid loans that would exceed local repayment capacity.
Representative (author) presented House File 3835, a technical change that backers say is necessary to make the 2025 WIF cap increase apply to a multi-community East Range Water project.
Jeff Jacobson, Aurora city administrator, told the committee the change is limited but decisive: the city's low median household income and the size of the project mean the project needs the higher grant portion to reach affordability. "Just that change in the language so that this increased cap... be applied to that project," Jacobson said, "we would be able to bring it down to that affordability cap." He warned that without the clarification the loan portion would put the project at "double" the affordability rate previously calculated.
Committee members asked whether the language would affect future bonding caps; a house researcher said the caps passed last session apply going forward and did not expect this bill to change broader policy, though she offered to follow up. The committee adopted an A1 amendment requested by the Department of Health; the transcript records a voice vote with "Aye" and no roll-call tally.
The bill's supporters said the change would let the WIF program function as originally intended so the East Range Water project and similarly situated communities can access the grant buy-down that makes large projects affordable to low-income service areas. No final committee vote on the underlying bill was recorded in the hearing transcript provided.
Next steps: the committee adopted the A1 amendment on the record; the transcript does not show a final passage vote on HF 3835.