Ledger Article "Polk City Council Will Consider Adding To Bond Issue"

The latest Ledger article regarding the details of the bond to be discussed at tonight's emergency meeting at 6:00 PM  Polk City Council Will Consider Adding To Bond Issue

With these new principle bond amounts going up, higher interest rates, and new insurance fees the total amortized debt will be so much larger than initially anticipated.  For a principle bond amount of $10.5 M for 30 years with one payment per year at a rate of 5.25% the annual payment now comes out to $702,627.80, with the total INTEREST ONLY paid totaling up to $10,578,834.06.

Yes, you are reading this correctly, the interest total will be more than the principle total of the bond. When you add the interest only back to the principle bond amount, you are now looking at a TOTAL DEBT of $21,769,716.27!! 

Add the insurance of $267,000 on top. Based on how it is mentioned in the article, I don’t know how that is being figured into the amount and if that is also incurring interest. If that is just tacked on top without interest that will bring the grand total to $21,345,834.06. So much for the $9 or $11 something Million we have in debt now.  There may also still be existing debt that is not being rolled into this new bond that is not even being figured into this new debt balance!

If we are currently paying something in the neighborhood of $700,000 annually in principle and interest on the existing debt, how again was this plan supposed to reduce the annual loan payments to make the debt easier for us to swallow by spreading it out over a longer period of time?  I think that initial goal has somehow gotten lost in the determination of the Interim City Attorney and the City Officials being so hell bent on getting this bond passed, come hell or high water.  At this rate, the residents will never see lowered millage rates and water & sewer rates for generations to come!