Davenport consultant Ted Cole briefed the Goldsboro City Council on Jan. 5 about the city’s capital improvement plan (CIP), fund balances and debt capacity.

Cole said Goldsboro holds AA credit ratings from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s and has rebuilt its unassigned fund balance to levels well above the city's policy minimums. He said FY26 includes roughly $8.5 million in capital projects funded by cash, grants and insurance proceeds with no new debt assumed for the year, but that fully funding the FY26 program likely requires roughly $3.3 million of reserves above standard annual funding.

Looking farther ahead, Cole said the city’s funding-level A general fund projects total about $29 million between FY27 and FY32, and the total identified projects across levels A–C are about $52 million. His model assumes issuing about $22 million in new debt (modeled at a conservative 5% interest rate) for high-priority projects and using nearly $7 million in supplemental funding over the decade to keep annual debt service manageable.

Cole and staff recommended the council consider raising the fund-balance target and treating some one-time resources as dedicated capital funding or using a mix of PAYGO (cash) and debt to manage affordability. He noted that maintaining a consistent annual debt-service appropriation (the presentation used $4.0M as a baseline) as older debt rolls off creates capacity for new projects but that budgeting choices, future revenue growth and any tax-rate changes would affect long-term affordability.

Councilmembers asked questions about assumptions (revenue growth, property revaluation cycles), PAYGO versus debt funding, and possible changes to fund-balance policy. Staff said the CIP and debt policy will be discussed at the upcoming retreat and in budget committee meetings.

Next steps: staff and the budget committee will incorporate council priorities and modeled funding options into the retreat and 2026 budget process.