Where the money is coming from, Part II...

Yesterday, I wrote about how the City borrowed a bunch of money for Thermo-related construction and to add on to the Marc-Mahal on Davis Street. Today, I reviewed the City's budget for 2026 to see how all of that flowed through and to get more specifics on some of the assumptions I made in putting that together.

First, let me say this: I'm not an accountant (I am married to one, though), but I do have executive and managerial experience putting budgets together and operating under them. So, I'd like to think I know a clean, well-put-together budget when I see one.

For all of my concerns with City leadership on their lack of transparency and ill-advised policy decisions, at least from what I can tell here, Lesa Smith (Asst. City Manager for Finance) seems to run a clean shop and have all of her many ducks in a row. This budget is well-organized, transparent, and easy to follow—even for non-bean counters like me. Hats off to her. It's impressive work.

The budget confirms a lot of what we thought. Water, sewer, and property taxes are carrying the bulk of the payments on the new debt:

Project	Paid by Utility Rates (Enterprise Fund)	Paid by Property Taxes (Debt Service Fund)	Total Debt Service
Thermo Project (2024 CO)	$540,856	$207,700	$748,556
City Hall Expansion (2025 CO)	$0	$603,363	$603,363
Combined Total	$540,856	$811,063	$1,351,919

But that's not the only debt we're paying from water and sewer this year. There is existing debt on the books that we're still paying for.

TOTAL DEBT SERVICE PAID FROM UTILIIES: $2,086,697

Bond Series	Principal	Interest	Total Payment
Revenue CO, Series 2024 – Thermo Projects	$150,000	$390,856	$540,856
Revenue CO, Series 2016	$575,000	$170,171	$745,171
GO Refunding Bonds, Series 2021	$195,000	$66,200	$261,200
Revenue CO, Series 2017 Long Term	$165,000	$77,450	$242,450
GO Refunding Bonds, Series 2017	$165,000	$7,370	$172,370
Revenue CO, Series 2012 – New City Hall	$50,000	$37,700	$87,700
Revenue CO, Series 2014 – WWTP Engineering	$15,000	$6,800	$21,800
Revenue CO, Series 2014 – Old City Hall	$10,000	$5,150	$15,150

And it's the same story with property taxes:

TOTAL DEBT SERVICE PAID FROM PROPERTY TAXES: $1,896,576

Bond Series	Total Payment (FY 2026)
Series 2024 CO Thermo Projects	$207,700
Series 2025 CO City Hall Expansion	$603,363
Series 2014 CO Street	$318,300
Series 2012 CO Street CIP	$236,250
Series 2019 Refunding – TIRZ #1	$222,400
Series 2020 CO Park Projects	$181,800
Series 2014 CO Old City Hall	$20,300
All other older series	$106,463

Oh, and on the matter of $3M left from the $12M issuance, that seems to have gone to road/traffic related expenses for Thermo, as well as engineering and architecture.

So, no smoking guns today, The books are good, even if we're stuck paying for things we don't need and didn't get a say in.