Longview schools' refinancing could save $1.1 million
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 6:56 AM PDT
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleInterest rates are going down, and that's good news for the Longview School District and its taxpayers.
The board unanimously agreed Monday evening to let a banking firm conduct research to determine whether refinancing 2001 bond money would be a smart move.
Mark Prussing, vice president the Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation, told board members they could save almost $1.1 million (according to last Friday's market) if outstanding money from the 2001 bond was refinanced through the Washington State School District Credit Enhancement Program.
The outstanding bonds total nearly $18 million and last until 2020. Voters had approved the bonds in 2001 to build a new middle school and remodel Monticello and Cascade middle schools.
Seattle-Northwest's research will take about a month, and interest rates could decline even more by then, Prussing said.
The district can refinance the bond only once, so the only downfall of doing it now is that interest rates could drop further in the years to come, he told the board.
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