Finance Committee Recommends Approval Of $33.4 Million Debt Issuance To Fund City Projects And Refinance Existing Debt

The Finance Committee met 07/21/2025. Most of the meeting was taken up by a presentation, discussion, and vote on the city’s 2025 financing/borrowing proposal which included $10,865,000 of general obligation promissory notes, $8,975,000 in water system revenue refunding bonds, $4,725,000 in sewerage system revenue bonds, and $8,800,000 in storm water system revenue refunding bonds for a total of $33,365,000.

This proposal included both funding for new projects and also refinancing of existing debt.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of all items.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

A big change from the way in which the city has handle bond issuances in the past is that, this year, the Finance Committee approved parameter resolutions pertaining to the financing. These resolutions established a set of parameters for the financing. The authority to finalize the debt was delegated to city officials so that, when the parameters were met, the debt could be issued outside of a Common Council meeting. This provided greater flexibility in the timing of when the city issued bonds, so it could avoid going to market on days when there were negative economic announcements or high volume or other things that negatively impacted rates.

Currently, they were tentatively scheduled to finalize everything on September 9, though that could change based on market dynamics, and the closing date was scheduled for October 1.

In addition to straight up borrowing, the proposal included some refinancing of existing debt. It was noted that if, at the time of pricing, the refinancing did not result in meaningful savings they would not proceed with that part of the transaction, instead only proceed with the new borrowing to fund new projects. By refinancing, the city could see an estimated savings of $136,000 for the water system revenue bonds and $143,000 for the storm water system revenue refunding bonds.

The presentation was fairly straightforward and the committee did not have a lot of questions. Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) did ask about the move to parameter resolutions. She wondered why the city had not done this in the past since it provided more flexibility. The answer was a little vague, but it sounded like city staff didn’t know it was an option to do it this way until their financial representative with Baird Financial told them about it.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of all four debt issuances.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1314424&GUID=637273ED-25B1-4982-B332-30B6D8E51E58