McKinney council approves parameters for four 2025 bond and certificate issuances

The McKinney City Council on March 4 adopted parameters allowing city staff to move forward with competitive sales and future closings for four separate 2025 debt issuances to fund capital projects and refund callable debt.

City Chief Financial Officer Mark Holloway told the council the package includes a general-obligation issuance of about $37 million (mostly streets and public safety), a $30 million certificate of obligation (including $20 million for Roy and Helen Hall Library renovation and $10 million for an impact facility), a $25 million water/wastewater revenue issuance (water and wastewater improvements), and a tax‑unlimited pledge waterworks and sewer system certificates of obligation series 2025. Holloway said the city also plans smaller refundings bundled with the new money and provided early estimates of lifetime savings on earlier callable bonds.

Holloway said the city expects to receive ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s and reported existing ratings of AAA on the general-obligation side and AA+/AA1 on the utility side. He said pricing officers (city manager, CFO, director of finance) would be authorized to take the issues to market within “not to exceed” parameters the council set, and that competitive sales are anticipated in May with closings in June.

Council members moved and voted on each of the four items in sequence. The council approved the parameters for: • City of McKinney, Texas tax‑unlimited pledge waterworks and sewer system revenue certificates of obligation, series 2025 (agenda item 252567); • City of McKinney, Texas general obligation bond series 2025A (agenda item 25256A); • City of McKinney, Texas general obligation refunding bonds series 2025B (agenda item 252569); • City of McKinney, Texas waterworks and sewer system revenue refunding and improvement bonds series 2025 (agenda item 252570).

Mark Holloway told the council the plan uses 20‑year amortizations for the new money and noted an estimated present value savings on the prior callable GO refundings of about $2.6–2.7 million over the remaining life. He also said the water/wastewater refunding rolled a smaller callable parcel from 2015 into the larger water issuance because the savings were not large enough to justify a separate sale.

The council discussion and votes were procedural authorizations setting sale parameters and delegating certain execution tasks to city officials; final pricing, exact principal amounts, and final debt service schedules will be set at sale under the authorized parameters and reported at closing.

Votes at a glance • 252567 — Tax‑unlimited pledge waterworks and sewer certificates of obligation, series 2025 — Council approved parameters to authorize sale and delegate pricing officers; vote tallies not specified in the record. • 25256A — General obligation bond series 2025A — Approved parameters to authorize sale and delegate pricing officers; vote tallies not specified. • 252569 — General obligation refunding bonds series 2025B — Approved parameters to authorize refunding sale and delegate pricing officers; vote tallies not specified. • 252570 — Waterworks and sewer revenue refunding and improvement bonds series 2025 — Approved parameters to authorize sale and delegate pricing officers; vote tallies not specified.

What happens next City staff will pursue ratings, finalize sales timing (Holloway said ratings were expected in April and sales in May), and return final pricing/close documents as the transactions are completed. The numbers and schedules may change at pricing within the “not to exceed” limits set by the council.

Speakers quoted or referenced in city presentations appear in the meeting record; the motions on each item were moved and seconded by council members but the transcript does not provide a roll‑call tally for each vote.