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- Millbrook Motors in non-compliance
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- Selectmen updated on funding for post employment benefits
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- Best for the public interest
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| Bonds signing: an important story |
| By David A. Mittell Jr. |
| Wednesday, September 26, 2012 09:16 AM |
|
Regardless of whether one favored building a new school, crematory, police station or addition to the fire station, one cannot but be grateful for the millions of dollars Duxbury’s AAA bond rating will save the town’s taxpayers in financing these projects. The recent bonds-signing is a good-news story, and an important one. Of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth, only 22 are able to boast a triple-A rating. This has little connection to Duxbury’s reputation as an affluent town. The rating has been assessed by Standard & Poor for the last four years (but not before that), based on strict criteria. Among these are the maintenance of funding reserves for all the things town government does, not using one-time revenues to balance annual budgets and not using borrowed funds to pay for depreciable items such as trucks. It comes down to strong financial management. For the record, the town recently sold four bonds: $872,000 over two years for schematic designs; $2.6 million over 15 years for the crematory; $3.7 million over 15 years for the fire station; $6.725 million over 20 years for the police station; and $70 million over 25 years for the co-located middle and high schools. Citigroup Global Markets, the winning bidder, is paying a $7-million premium for the privilege of doing business with the town. This will be amortized over 25 years to reduce the total amount of borrowing. The AAA bond rating assures an interest rate of 2.61 percent and savings the town of $2.2 million. John Madden, the town’s finance director since 2006, respects the fact that deciding the merits of capital projects belongs to voters. He sees his role as to provide good numbers and to expedite projects as inexpensively as possible. But his main job is to help manage the town’s finances year in and year out in a way that enhances good credit. According to Standard & Poor, Duxbury is doing very well in this regard. Mr. Madden is a Hull native who raised his children in Plymouth, where he and his wife still live. He has worked for other communities and is grateful to have landed in Duxbury. The feeling could be mutual. |







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