Roswell has embarked on a plan to shore up funding for roads and other capital projects, beginning with a $14.7 million bond issue voters will be asked to approve in November.
Not everyone is on board with the plan, however.
Some residents argue that city leaders are slipping through a tax increase.
The City Council voted unanimously last month to put the bond on the November ballot, while assuring residents that their tax rate would not increase from its current level.
Roswell Finance Director Keith Lee says the bond will not increase the tax burden because the city just paid off a 2002 bond issue in February, a year earlier than scheduled. Other bond debt is scheduled to clear in the next two years, he added.
The new bond, if approved, would fund transportation, recreation and public safety projects.
It calls for spending about $8.7 million for ramp improvements and landscaping at Holcomb Bridge Road and Ga. 400 and to construct paths and bike lanes on Eaves Road and Holcomb Bridge Road.
Another $4.5 million would fund expansion at the Roswell Adult Recreation Center and provide synthetic turf fields at three parks. The final portion of the bond, $1.5 million, would pay to rebuild Fire Station No. 4 in south Roswell.
Even with the new bond, the city’s debt will decrease overall by 2014 because old debt will be retired, Lee said.
That has raised questions from some residents who wonder why the city would issue a new bond in the first place.
“Why issue a bond when, in two years, we can pay cash for every item on this bond referendum and save $130,000 in interest alone?” said resident Lee Fleck.
Fleck also questions a plan to keep taxing residents at the same overall rate as the bond debt decreases. State law does not allow governments to tax for debt service that does not exist.
The city’s current tax rate is 5.455 mills on personal property, which generates about $25 million. About 25 percent of that pays down bond debt. But by 2014, that percentage is expected to fall to 14 percent, then lower in subsequent years, even with the new bond.
Under a plan coordinated with the finance department, Councilman Rich Dippolito has proposed shifting much of the mill levy now dedicated for debt into the general fund to pay for street maintenance. Currently, street maintenance is funded with leftover money from the previous year’s budget.
“What we’ve wanted to do is stop funding it out of there and put it into maintenance so it becomes part of the overall maintenance of the city,” Dippolito said, adding that it will provide a more certain method of paying for street upkeep.
But the plan raised eyebrows on the City Council.
While he voted to place the bond issue on the ballot, Councilman Kent Igleheart questioned channeling debt savings into the operating fund.
“We still have to make that decision in the future if there is a switch between debt service and the [general fund] because I am not sure that support that,” he said.
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