All Good things Come to an End

The City used debt to finance required water facilities for growth related projects in 1997. The debt issue was to be repaid through impact fee revenues. Impact fee revenues were projected to be sufficient to cover the growth related portion of the debt service of these bonds and the fees would continue until any shortfalls that may occur were recovered by the General Fund.

The City issued the bond to finance improvements in the Brookstone/Industrial Park Area. The annual bond debt service, including principal and interest, were being repaid through a combination of user fees and impact fees. The impact fees collected had been sufficient to pay the growth portion of the debt service until 2008. The slowing of construction and the related reduction in the collection of impact fees has resulted in user fees having to cover a larger share of the debt service. The result is that the operations of the water utility and the debt service are now greater than the revenues from user fees and impact fees.