Members of the Marshall County Council heard a presentation from Heidi Amspaugh with Baker Tilly Monday morning concerning the potential refunding of the 2014 bonds for the Marshall County Jail.
Amspaugh showed council members the outstanding bond amount of $5,030,000 which currently has a 4% interest rate. Paying the bond until it matures in Feb. 2027 would include interest payments of $569,700. She said if the county were to refund the bonds, she estimated an interest rate of 2% to 2.5% saving about $316,000 in interest.
The principal outstanding would be lowered to $4,175,000 by using the Debt Service Reserve Fund to pay down the bond.
Amspaugh fielded many questions from council members Tim Harman and Jesse Bohannon on the proposal to refund the bonds. Bohannon asked if additional funds could be used to lower the bond refund. Harman challenged her comment that interest savings would be approximately $316,000 stating that the county will still be paying about $100,000 in interest before the refinancing is completed. The pair said the savings wasn’t a real saving and wanted to wait for the state legislature to allow the Marshall County to continue collecting the Special LIT rate for the jail operation.
There was a lengthy discussion between Amspaugh and the council and they took no action at their meeting. Last week the commissioners voted to move forward with refinancing. The commissioners will consider a resolution at their May 2nd meeting and the council will consider the resolution at their May 9 meeting. If the process moves forward the Building Corporation members would also need to meet and consider the resolution.
