TTUSD Saves Taxpayers over $120 million in Tax Payments

TRUCKEE, Calif. – The Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD) recently sold the final series of bonds under both Measure U and Measure E, which were approved by voters in November 2014. The District was able to make these two final bond issues several years earlier than planned in a competitive bidding process. By selling the bonds earlier, the district will be saving taxpayers a total of $122.7 million in tax payments versus their initial conservative projections.

The competitive bidding process included a combined 16 bids for the two financings and the District awarded the bonds to the two lowest cost bids. The bonds were sold for $40 million and $12.5 million for Measure U and Measure E, respectively. According to Chris Hiatt and Chet Wang from Keygent, the District’s financial advisor, the bid results were very strong: “In 2015, the District only received six total bids for the first issuances under Measures U and E. We are very pleased with today’s extremely competitive bidding process. It’s a testament to the District’s strong credit ratings, management, and the timing of the bond sales.”

The bonds were sold in a very low-interest rate environment, resulting in additional interest cost savings for local taxpayers. “As a result of the low-interest rates we have seen for the last few years and strong tax base growth, the District ultimately received much lower borrowing costs for Measures U and E than projected back in 2014,” said Todd Rivera, TTUSD’s Executive Director of Business Services.  Measure U was projected to cost a total of $251 million including interest costs and Measure E was projected to cost $139 million. The total costs ended up at $165.4 million for Measure U and $101.9 for Measure E and taxpayers will see a shorter period of repayment as a result.

“We are extremely appreciative of the community’s support in upgrading our schools, and we owe it to our taxpayers to make prudent financial decisions,” said Rob Leri, Superintendent of TTUSD. “We are excited to see the final phases of bond projects get completed and provide modernized facilities for our students that match the award-winning education they are receiving.”