State Representative Cindy Golding attended the Lisbon City Council meeting Monday, June 22 to speak about what she needs from her constituents.

Every summer, Golding attends a city council meeting of each of the 11 communities that she represents. This summer, her focus was on sharing what changes she is trying to make and what she needs from her constituents.

“What I’m asking from all the city councils is for you to give me some specifics of things that, when we go back in January, we can fix. One of the things I find that we spend a lot of time doing is going back and fixing things. When bills are passed, then we pass things to make it not quite so bad or make them better. So, I need some specifics from you,” Golding said.

In response to her request, Lisbon mayor Doug O’Connor expressed frustration about the lack of funding that small communities get compared to bigger cities in Linn County.

“When local towns go for a grant from the state, it always seems that the cities get it,” O’Connor said. “[Cedar Rapids] gets all this money from the state to do roundabouts or new streets somewhere, but we can’t do anything with our streets because our budgets are shot. I mean, they’re spending millions and millions of dollars, where it could give us brand new streets everywhere for what they’re getting there.”

According to Golding, the funding from the state is based on the size of the county, rather than the population of the city.

“That’s a problem that I’m working on. I’ve tried and will keep trying,” Golding said. “The fact that Cedar Rapids is our neighbor doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have the opportunity for improvement internally.”

However, Golding explained that even when she brings up an issue that is focused on what she has heard from her constituents, and it doesn’t make progress, there can still be compromises to make something happen to help the issue.

“Last year, we put together a proposal for property tax. I worked together with all of our 11 communities, and the League of Cities liked it, and several people across the state liked it, but it didn’t get a hearing. But we were able to push it, with some compromise, to make the new property tax bill not quite as detrimental as it was going to be,” Golding explained.