County Commission Chairman Jim Sides
♦Chairman Jim Sides made the following comments to the Rowan Free Press:
“There appears to be some confusion regarding “local funds” used to support debt service the County has incurred for Public Schools’ (Rowan-Salisbury Schools and Kannapolis City Schools) capital needs. The letter from Dr. Miller and Mrs. Norman dated January 10, 2014 states: “For far too long the primary method of financing has been through loans and debt service, paid back by using state sales tax money and lottery proceeds which are inadequate to meet the school system’s capital needs. Those sources of state funds were intended to supplement, not supplant, local responsibility to provide for school capital needs. In effect, you are requiring us to use these dedicated state revenue streams to repay funds borrowed to finance school facilities, without using any local funds whatsoever.” This statement is not accurate. I have provided an attachment that details debt service payments for Public Schools’ debt for fiscal years 2014 – 2021. The attachment also shows the amounts of restricted sales taxes and lottery proceeds I hope to have to apply toward the debt. Finally, the attachment shows that local funds of between $6.4 million and $7.2 million must be appropriated annually to retire the debt in the current year and the next five years. Just for reference, the amount of local funds used to retire Public Schools’ debt for the past five years (fiscal years 2009 – 2013) was between $5.4 million and $7.0 million.
Please note that the attachment does not reflect debt service for any financings currently being proposed. Also, the “Local funds used to pay Public School’s debt service” is in addition to local funds appropriated for Public Schools’ current expense. In the current year, the County has appropriated $31,789,444 for Rowan-Salisbury Schools’ current expense
Also attached is a copy of the mediation costs thus far in trying to reach a settlement between the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners related to capital expenditures.”
Click on an image below to view the document as a PDF.
Public Schools LTD Payments 2014-2021
Rowan County and Rowan-Salisbury Schools Mediation Costs
