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Columbia council workshop grapples with capital accounting, fire truck funding and community donations
Summary
Columbia Borough Council spent its Nov. 6 workshop weighing capital budgeting choices, including whether to return bond debt service to the capital fund and how to fund a ladder truck the borough—s volunteer fire company ordered.
Councilmembers spent the majority of a Nov. 6 workshop poring over the 2026 general and capital budgets and debating how to fund near-term capital needs, including a ladder truck the Columbia Fire Company has ordered.
Staff told council the borough moved bond debt-service payments from the capital fund into the general fund in recent years because capital balances were depleted and there were no dedicated transfers back into capital. Councilmembers and staff discussed two approaches: restore debt service to the capital fund and make a recurring transfer from the general fund into capital, or leave debt service in the general fund and plan transfers when and if capital receipts (property sale proceeds, grants) materialize. Staff cautioned that treating projected property-sale proceeds as current capital cash can be…
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