Today, during a four (4) minute meeting of the Linn County Board of Supervisors, the Board obligated County taxpayers to $8,330,000 in long term debt plus interest – see links at end.
According to the County’s Annual Report (6/28/2018) on EMMA, a website established to increase transparency in the municipal securities market, Linn County’s debt was $28,915,218 as of 6/30/2018 – see page 13.
Once the $8.33M is borrowed, the County’s long term debt will increase to about $37M in the fiscal year that ends 6/30/2019. Add in an estimated $31.5M in long term debt for the Harris Building, and by December 2019 County taxpayers will be on the hook for over $68M in long term debt plus interest.
Couple that $68M with the Cedar Rapids School District plans to spend $224.2M and the City of Cedar Rapids plans to increase the City’s property tax levy by 22 cents for ten years, and it is no wonder some in this community are crying foul on the tax breaks given away to developers. Maybe the City, the School District, and the Board should sit down and have a discussion about priorities versus the taxpayers ability to pay? Joel D. Miller – Linn County Auditor
Linn County 2019A Revised Finance Plan Discussion
Linn County 2019B Revised Finance Plan Discussion
HrngSet BondSalesGOLandand WaterLegacyandGOCoBldgLinnCounty 634201-30-v1…
January 2, 2019 at 10:23 |
Arena financing dings Coralville bond rating
Standard & Poor’s lowered its general obligation bond rating for Coralville from BBB+ to a non-investment grade BB+ last week due to its financing arrangement for the Iowa Arena, the Des Moines Register reports. S&P says the city is using both supported debt and annual appropriation debt to aid the project, primarily “funded with bank loans on a variable rate basis.” The lowered rating “reflects our view of the city’s heightened debt burden with very high fixed costs, its exposure to high-interest rates on its bank loans, and weakened financial flexibility and performance,” wrote S&P credit analyst Helen Samuelson. City Administrator Kelly Hayworth took issue with the downgrade, saying he’s confident the project does not threaten the city’s financial position and outlook. “We’ve never not paid an annual appropriation bond,” Mr. Hayworth told the Register. “We have always paid all our debt and plan to continue to do that.”
Courtesy of Corridor Business Journal on 2 January 2019
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