Dear Editor:
From time to time, a city’s leadership will make consequential decisions that will impact the city and its people for years to come. As an elected official, I believe major decisions should be accompanied with a mandate from the people. Good public policy can only be successful if the will of the people is both respected and accommodated. Rainsville has certainly had her fair share of important decisions since our 1956 incorporation. The decision to create a sewer system has proven to be monumental in the development of our community. The construction of the Civic Center brought together people like few other projects could. The Field of Dreams complex has been a tremendous amenity to our city. The construction of the Northeast Alabama Agri-Business Center was certainly a big undertaking for a city our size and it will take years to realize the actual impact of the facility on Rainsville and the surrounding areas.
Currently, the Rainsville city leadership is weighing a $1.5 million bond issue to spend on paving roads and paying off a $300,000 line of credit for the Public Building Authority, the entity who owns the Agri-Business Center. The missing link is the mandate from the public. I have talked with a few citizens about the new debt and questions arise about the details of the proposed deal.
The $1.5 million bond issue calls for interest only payments until 2023. That is approximately $325,000 in interest before principal payments begin. Total principal and interest paid by the city at payoff in 2030 will be approximately $2.07 million. Currently the city’s debt stands at $4.02 million. The new bond issue would increase it to $5.55 million. Additionally, the city services the Public Building Authority’s debt which stands at $4.15 million. Through debt service and subsidizing the Agri-Business Center’s operations, the city contributes approximately $24,000 per month to the Public Building Authority. Given the proposal, the aggregate debt that would be serviced by the City of Rainsville, would stand at approximately $9.4 million. This does not include a current sewer expansion proposal on the table which would be at least another $1.5 million in USDA debt. If the sewer expansion is carried out as proposed our total debt would be pushing $11 million. Currently, the City of Rainsville collects approximately $4 million per year in taxes. We collect an additional $1 million from sanitation and sewer customers; and combined, those proprietary funds operate at small deficit which is covered by the general fund (taxes). With the new proposed debt, the city’s debt service and Agri-Business Center expenses combined would consume nearly a quarter of our tax revenue.
I write this letter to inform the people of Rainsville of the proposals being considered. This is a really big deal for our city and I have heard very little in the form of a mandate from the people of Rainsville. I want to know whether the people of Rainsville want this deal for our city. I want to know if they want it restructured. I want to know if they want it rejected all together. As mayor, I have serious reservations about adding more debt to our current obligations as well as punting repayment down the road for another mayor and council to find a way to repay it – whether that is through cuts to core city services or tax increases. If history teaches us anything, the roads to financial solvency and prosperity are not paved with borrowed dollars. Every family, business, and government must live within its means. As always, my door is open. I can be reached in person at Rainsville City Hall on Wednesdays. I can be contacted via email (mayornickjones@gmail.com), cell phone (256-638-5011), Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Sincerely,
Nick Jones
Mayor of Rainsville, AL
* Mayor Nick Jones submitted the letter above to Southern Torch earlier this week. He and the council have since met, where the council voted in favor of the $1.5 million. Jones was the only dissenting vote against the measure that is predicted to cost the city $2.07 million.
