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Finance Committee directs advisory groups to develop utility and school bond packages after consultant modeling
Summary
Staff presented consultant modeling showing multi-year rate increases for water and wastewater and trade-offs between bond financing and using street-sales-tax funds. The committee asked the Utility Advisory Board to prepare $10 million and $20 million project packages and asked the joint assembly-school-facilities committee to prepare $5M, $10M
City staff and the managers office presented consultant modeling to the Finance Committee on Feb. 5 that projected significant year-over-year rate pressure for both wastewater and water unless capital funding is provided. Manager Koester described scenarios in which a $10 million wastewater bond could lower projected annual wastewater rate increases from roughly 12.75% to about 9.25% (modeling assumptions provided by the consultant), and she explored trade-offs that would come from using voter-approved transportation sales-tax dollars to finance utility underground repairs.
"It would be a good opportunity for you to give me more direction on, you know, things you would like to see," Koester said, describing different debt and sales-tax scenarios and the operational capacity to execute projects.
The committee directed the Utility Advisory Board to develop both a $10 million and a $20 million project package for water/wastewater infrastructure and to return recommendations to Finance for further direction. The motion passed without objection.
On schools, staff reminded the committee that the states school-debt reimbursement program may be reinitiated and that projects eligible for state reimbursement should be identified. The committee asked the joint assembly–school-facilities committee to prepare lists of candidate maintenance and capital projects at three target levels ($5 million, $10 million and $15 million) so the city can evaluate potential ballot proposals and state-reimbursement eligibility.
Why it matters: Consultant estimates indicate the utility enterprise faces multi-year rate pressures unless capital work is advanced through bonding or dedicated local revenue. The committees direction sets the next step: advisory boards will propose concrete project lists and cost packages for public and committee review ahead of any ballot decision.
What the committee said: Members expressed concern about repeated bond questions and voter fatigue, balanced against the operational need to avoid compounding future rate shocks. Manager Koester cautioned against delaying needed infrastructure funding and described limited annual project delivery capacity when bonds are spent across multiple years.
Next steps: The Utility Advisory Board will develop the $10M and $20M project packages and return to Finance. The joint facilities committee will prepare school project lists at three target sizes for committee and public consideration.
