Stafford leaders review bond scenarios; adviser says $80M package could avoid tax-rate increase

Clarence Greer, a financial adviser with RBC Capital Markets, told a joint meeting of the Stafford Municipal School District (SMSD) Board of Trustees and the City of Stafford council that the district could present voters with a range of school bond packages — from an $80 million proposal that would include moving a $5 million maintenance note to the interest-and-sinking (I&S) side without increasing the tax rate, up to roughly $156 million that would raise the I&S rate by about a dime — and still remain well below peer districts’ debt levels.

Greer said the district has issued 22 bond transactions totaling more than $253 million since its first borrowing in 1985, has paid off about $159 million in principal and currently has just under $90 million in voted bonds outstanding. He presented four scenarios showing how different bond totals and assumed future property-value growth would affect the I&S tax rate and monthly homeowner impacts under conservative interest-rate assumptions.

The presentation’s purpose, Greer told trustees and council members, was to start a joint discussion of…