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Committee sends $25M bond, $25M capital lease to council with favorable recommendation after brief delay vote
Summary
A joint committee recommended that the full City Council approve a $25 million general‑obligation bond for core infrastructure and a $25 million master lease to replace fire, DPW and technology equipment; a motion to postpone failed and the administration said projects are shovel ready and were conditionally approved by the municipal oversight board.
City finance staff and a bond adviser told a Hartford City joint committee they plan to seek council approval to issue a $25,000,000 general‑obligation bond to fund core municipal infrastructure and to establish a $25,000,000 master lease facility to accelerate replacement of fire and public‑works equipment and some IT needs.
Julian Freund, director of management and budget, presented the GO bond’s draft project list: $10,000,000 toward the city’s milling and paving program, $2.5 million for road reconstruction projects (Eastview, Grama, Essex), $2.5 million for streetlight replacements, $2,000,000 for sidewalk repairs and replacement and $4,000,000 for ADA compliance projects, plus $1,000,000 for Maple Avenue streetscape work and $3,000,000 for stormwater pump‑station improvements.
"The GO bonds would fund core municipal projects," Freund said, and he added the items were included in the mayor’s five‑year plan and reviewed by the municipal accountability review board with conditional support.
Bond adviser Jay Redd described the rationale for returning to the market: some projects are too large to fund on a pay‑as‑you‑go basis and the city’s balance sheet can now support an issuance. Redd said the structure under consideration uses a 20‑year maturity to keep annual payments predictable.
The capital lease (master lease) would provide capacity to finance recurring heavy equipment needs that historically were financed by short‑term pay‑as‑you‑go allocations; staff projected lease repayments to begin in FY2028 and to peak as equipment tranches are added, using 3‑, 5‑ and 7‑year amortization windows depending on equipment useful life.
Committee members questioned project selection, whether proceeds are restricted to the listed projects, and the anticipated annual debt service. Officials said bond proceeds are accounted for in a designated fund and must be spent on the listed projects within IRS spend‑down rules; projected initial annual debt service was around $2,500,000 and declining over the 20‑year period, staff said. Lease payments were projected as roughly $2,700,000 in FY2028, $3,580,000 in FY2029 and peaking near $4,500,000, depending on timing and tranche selection.
Councilman Gayle moved to postpone the item to continue internal policy discussion about project choices; that motion failed. Council President Clark then moved a favorable recommendation to the full council, which was seconded and carried. The committee therefore will send the bond ordinance and lease authorization to full council with a favorable recommendation.
Next procedural step: staff said a public hearing would be held on Monday, March 16 at 7 p.m., and the administration will forward the bond ordinance and updated five‑year capital plan as requested by reviewers.
