Five Year Capital Improvements Progarm
Voted Debt Authority
As outlined in previous CIP documents, the City received voter approval in the spring and fall of 1990 to issue voted debt for transportation improvements, parkland acquisition, municipal facilities construction/expansion and construction of a community recreation center. In effect, these bond issues all dealt with giving the City the capacity to incur additional debt, for certain types of public improvements, which would exceed statutorily established unvoted debt limits.
In May 1990, voted debt authority was approved for $34 million in transportation improvements, $7 million in municipal facilities construction/expansion projects, including a Justice Center, and $4.5 million in parkland acquisition. In November 1990, voted debt authority was approved for $11.5 million for the construction of a community recreation center.
As stressed when the issues were presented to the voters, we have completed or initiated those projects for which adequate funding has been determined to be available. As pledged, property taxes have not been increased.
The following represents a breakdown of the voted debt authority approved by the voters and debt issued against that authority:
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Transportation improvements - $34 million in authority was approved and we have issued $32,441,470 against that authority. We do not anticipate utilizing the remaining authority in the near future. A portion of the remaining authority was utilized as part of the 2004 refunding of the 2000 Series A term bonds.
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Parkland acquisition - $4.5 million in authority was approved and we have issued $4,453,943 against that authority. As identified in Section 4, the City places a high priority on preserving parkland and open space.
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Municipal facilities - $7 million in debt authority was approved by the voters, and we have issued $6,671,587 in debt against that authority. The voted debt issued was for land acquisition for the Dublin Justice Center site, the construction of the facility, and improvements to the communications system.
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Community Recreation Center - $11.5 million in authority was approved and we have utilized 100% of this authority.
With the exception of the transportation voted authority, we do not anticipate utilizing any additional voted debt authorized in 1990.
The voted debt authority was obtained to reduce the effect of the “ten-mill limit.” At December 31, 2008, the taxing district with the highest required tax rate in mills to retire current debt outstanding was 2.7417. The majority of this millage, 1.5640, relates to the City’s debt. Currently, less that 5% of the City’s debt is retired by property tax revenue from inside millage.
At December 31, 2008, the City had $106.5 million in unvoted debt capacity and $183.1 million in total debt capacity. Based on the calculations to determine the amount of debt that can be supported by income tax revenues, we have projected that we will issue $53.7 million in long-term debt during the next five years, a portion which will be retired using property tax revenues from the City’s inside millage, leaving an estimated amount of $59.8 million that could be issued and supported by the income tax revenues by 2013. Depending upon the City’s future need to issue debt and the growth in the assessed valuation, additional voted debt authority may be needed in the future.