In doing some research I came across the debt portion of the county budget. It appears that for nearly two decades Escambia County has been continually refinancing its bonds that are tied to the LOST funds and never paying them off – or least not paying off a significant portion of them.
$50,355,000 in bonds were issued on April 1, 1993 to refund the County’s outstanding 1989B Sales Tax Revenue bonds and to pay the costs is issuing the 1993 Sales Tax Refunding Bonds. These bonds bore interest at rates from 3.10% to 5.6% with the last maturity being April 1, 2008. They were to be paid by the half-cent State Sales Tax.
However, by Oct. 1, 2001, the county still owed $48,830,000 on those bonds. What they did was refinance them and roll in the debt necessary to build new office complex. Yes, the interest rate was reduced but with so much outstanding after 7.5 years, it could be argued the county had no intention of ever paying off the 1993 bonds.
$89,730,000 in bonds were issued September 1, 2002 to refund “the County’s outstanding 1993 Sales Tax Revenue Refunding Bonds and to fund certain capital projects in the County including the construction of new facilities for the Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of the Court and Board offices.” These bonds bore interest rates from 2.0% to 5.25% with the last maturity being October 1, 2033.
The balance of these bonds as of 10/1/08: $82,780,000
Question: Shouldn’t have the 1993-2002 sale taxes paid the 1993 bonds off? Since they didn’t, where did the money go? Aren’t we putting an unfair burden on the current and future taxpayers?
