Decatur voters approved a $75 million general obligation bond in November that will pay for several school construction projects. But the referendum’s language didn’t specify how to structure the bond, which was clarified earlier this month by the school board.
The board considered six scenarios and wound up choosing a minimum par bid — or the amount the school system is asking for — of $71,910,000. With this option the total project fund comes to $75 million, with an average millage increase of 2.06 and a true interest of 3.046 percent.
The most expensive scenario featured a maximum project fund of $89,503,377, but that option included a true interest of 3.375 percent with five percent coupons and an average millage increase of 2.52.
Board Vice Chair Garrett Goebel believes the approximate taxpayer savings between the max project fund option and the one ultimately chosen is $600,000 to $700,000.
“That’s strictly an educated, back-of-the-napkin guess,” Goebel said. “It’ll be awhile before we really know how much we’re saving. The important thing is we got the lowest interest rate, which is what we wanted all along.
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