Small towns across Iowa are grappling with the rising costs of water and sewer systems, and Dumont is no exception. At a town hall meeting held on Friday (Jan. 30) in Dumont, City Council member Mike Day told State Representative Pat Grassley that unfunded state mandates are continuing to strain local budgets. Days said residents feel the impact, noting that the City of Dumont has raised utility rates to be able to keep up with the mandates, but says they’ve reached the limit of what the community can bear.
“I’ve been on the council for like four years and we get mandates from the state like sewer, the water, do this, do that. But we never get no money to take care of that. So we had to raise the taxes, the water bill, the sewer bill. And Dumont’s at the point now we can’t go no more. Our taxes are as high as they better be. But we don’t get no help from the state to help take care of that mandate. We just can’t keep raising taxes on these people.”
Day clarified that the mandates he referenced are from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Grassley says he’s working on legislation that could help small towns access funding and explore options for shared services.
“I’m working on a bill that would look at how we could raise some revenue to be able to use for local water and sewage. It’s going to, I mean, one of the goals of my objective is to be honest with you is making sure that we’re, if there’s potential for consolidation or sharing of any of that kind of stuff through those resources, but also for communities to be able to access dollars to be able to target water and sewer, because I know that every community, especially smaller communities are struggling with it. So I don’t have that out yet, but I’m working through it. It’s going to, it’s going to not be the easiest thing to do where we’re going to have the revenue enhancement come from, but I think it needs to be done.”
Grassley says he hopes future legislation can ease the financial pressure on towns like Dumont. A Republican from New Hartford, he serves as Speaker of the Iowa House representing District 57, covering all of Butler County and part of Bremer County. Other topics of discussion included the state budget, school funding, crime bills, carbon pipeline, economic development, volunteer fire and ambulance issues.
