Friday, February 27, 2015

Opinion; expansion takes city over it's borrowing limit

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/mailbag/feb-letters/article_c56d7187-13d7-531d-9bd5-0819ad3fbc86.html

"Our Legislature sets legal debt limits for every municipality to insure residents will not be subject to excessive debt. Rapid City's limit is $212 million. Currently, we have $92 million in outstanding bonds, leaving a maximum of $120 million in bonding capacity.
The civic center expansion is projected to cost $180 million. That's $60 million (30 percent) over our legal bonding indebtedness. To pay this difference, the city will issue Certificates of Participation to investors. The city will then survey and plat that $60 million construction portion and commence a sale-leaseback with investors. Once the city repays investors, ownership reverts back to Rapid City."

Interesting point. And I agree, this is too many eggs in one basket.  I'm beginning to think this is all about Sanford Premier Center envy.

1 comment:

  1. They are actually going to do 120 million in COPs' to reserve the abilty to bond for another 60 million, yikes !

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