The Iowa House passed a bill last week that would give counties an opportunity to utilize state funds for their infrastructure needs.

“What the bill would allow them to do is kind of swap out some of their federal dollars that have some more restrictions on them, for some state money that doesn’t have those restrictions. Then that state money can be used, not just on the primary road system, but also on the secondary roads. So that gets out into your rural arm-to-market roads (and) your county bridges that are not on primary roads.”

That’s Representative Chip Baltimore who adds that the goal is to try to provide additional funds to county supervisors to complete more projects in a quicker time frame. It would also allow for the state to apply federal funds to other state infrastructure projects.

The bill is now in the Senate for consideration.