Georgetown Piling on the Debt

The city council is poised to approve the issuance of $15,270,000 in new debt that costs $6,287,697 in interest for a total of $21,557,697. The issuance of this debt does not require voter approval. Here is the debt service schedule.

The city will initially be paying over $1M per year for the privilege of borrowing this money.

The next chart shows the intended use of the borrowed money.

click on chart to make larger

The particularly disturbing thing is that bond debt is being used to fund items as small as $140,000. Should not the city be funding this type of item from current revenue? Secondly, bond debt is being used to purchase items like radios and police vehicles with 5 year and 7 year life expectancies respectively. Again, shouldn't these item be purchased out of current revenue?

Note also that the city is issuing $6,105,526 in debt to "maintain" the airport. This seems to be a clear indicator that the city is increasing the capacity of the airport, not just maintaining it in the current capability.