From today’s Chicago Tribune:
“Taking advantage of interest rates lower than those of four years ago, DuPage County Board members voted Tuesday to refinance their 2001 sale of transportation revenue bonds in a deal that will save the county up to $4.7 million over 16 years to help pay for road improvements.
The county plans to use about $83 million in new bond sales to pay off part of the $113 million remaining on the 20-year bond issue from 2001. That $83 million, backed by revenue from DuPage’s share of state motor-fuel taxes and the county gas tax, would be paid back at about 4.3 percent, as opposed to the 5.4 percent rate the county got four years ago.
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The board passed the measure unanimously, but was sharply criticized by a government watchdog group for not providing details about the recipients of about $700,000 in administrative fees and about $250,000 in insurance on the deal.
‘It’s an issue of a culture with the county of not being open with the public,’ said attorney Sarah Klaper of the Elmhurst-based Citizen Advocacy Center.
James Zay (R-Carol Stream) raised the question of how the fees will be divided up as the resolution was passed unanimously by the board’s Finance Committee, even though committee members did not have that information before voting on it.
….
In between meetings, Zay privately was shown estimates.
‘The problem I have is if we didn’t ask in committee, we wouldn’t have seen these figures,’ Zay said at the board meeting later Tuesday morning. ‘Are we hiding something?’”
It’s a fair question. Hey, Joe Birkett, you’re interested in bond fee questions - when is the press conference?
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