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~ , <br />Cindy~Johnson - Re: Courthouse Square financing ~ Page 2 <br /><letters(a~statesmanlournal.com> <br />Commissioners, <br />Congratulations taking out a full page advertisement to inform citizens <br />and elicit feedback on the Marion County budget. Your web site is also <br />much more helpful than just a few months before. I anticipate you will <br />begin to provide updated 5-7 year financial forecasts. <br />Pasted here is an editorial I had sent to the Statesman Journal just <br />before Easter in response to your decision to forgo principal payments <br />on the Courthouse Square project debt according to a February staff <br />report from Business Services, Resolution 01-8R, and a Statesman Journal <br />article. Before submitting the article, I attempted numerous times to <br />get a fuller explanation than what was in the staff report and the <br />newspaper article. I had to conclude that "spending" the "savings" in <br />managing the certificates of participation financed debt is not in the <br />taxpayers best interest. <br />The article with my recommendation follows: <br />Courthouse Square Financing March , 2001 <br />Draft <br />Are you bewildered by Marion County government's continued claims of <br />the Courthouse Square project being "under budget* after borrowing 2+ <br />million dollars more than needed, and substantially scaling down the <br />project? <br />Now, even more incredibly, the Statesman Journal reports that this <br />'`savings'` will be spent in the next three to four years while forgoing <br />payments on principal. In other words, money borrowed and allocated to <br />the project--which should be used to pay off the debt faster, or to <br />reduce payments for the loan's duration-- is instead freed for other <br />spending, to the tune of 600,000, 625,000, 650,000, and 425,000 dollars <br />in each successive year. This *creative'' financing is unfair to <br />taxpayers. <br />Let's urge our Marion County Commissioners to live within their <br />budget while paying the "amortized" costs of Courthouse Square today, <br />rather than spending the '`savings" now and asking present and future <br />taxpayers to pay more tomorrow. <br />Bill Burgess <br />1534 Scotch Avenue SE <br />Salem, Oregon 97306 <br />503-370-9044 <br />CC: Cindy Johnson <br />