FLORENCE AZ –In Wednesday’s Board Meeting, the Supervisors learned that the recent refinancing of debt from the construction of the Pinal County Adult Detention Center actually saved much more money than was originally estimated.
Mark Reader, Pinal County ’s Financial Advisor from the firm of Stone and Youngberg, said the timing of the refinancing was fortunate. “It’s no secret the interest rates are at historically low levels,” Reader said. “The cash flow savings from refinancing this debt came in at $1,951,677.”
The Supervisors earlier approved refinancing the debt, along with obtaining new financing for capital projects, to take advantage of the historically low tax rates. It was thought that refinancing the debt would save $400,000 to $600,000 in interest payments.
“This was a very efficient refinancing effort,” Reader said.
The county obtained $18.4 million for refinancing the 2001 Certificates of Participation along with $12 million in new funds for two public health clinics, one in San Tan Valley and one in Maricopa. The money will also be used to complete renovation of the Building A facility to accommodate a five member Board of Supervisors beginning in January of 2013.
Assistant County Manager for Administrative Services, Manny González, said that 70 percent of the $12 million will be paid back by Pinal County Health Care Services District.
Pinal County ’s bond rating for Certificates of Participation was upgraded from A to A+ from Standard and Poor’s.
“This is a double win for the taxpayers,” said Board Chairman Pete Rios. “First of all, we are getting two new health clinics for underserved areas of the county. Second, the savings on the refinancing was more than triple what we expected.”
“My hat’s off to the people who worked so hard on this,” Vice Chairman Bryan Martyn said. “We under-promised and over-delivered when it came to saving on the refinancing. That is always good news to hear. I hope people will notice the nearly two million in savings.”
“This news is very, very good,” said Supervisor David Snider. “Our timing was excellent and I’m thrilled that we were able to take advantage of the low interest rates. When you can improve the delivery of public health care services to our residents and deliver a savings of nearly two million dollars to the general fund – it is a huge accomplishment. It is one of our county strategic goals to improve health care services and we continue to make progress in this area.”
