Between 1961 and 1993, the Estero Municipal Improvement District issued almost $81,837,000 in general obligation bonds to fund public improvement projects. It may have seemed like an interminable length of time to repay our general obligation bond debt but as of August 1, 2007 we are paid in full and debt free.
Imagine that, no more debt. The 2005-2006 property tax statement was the very last tax bill encumbering us with the City’s bond repayment obligation. I would certainly enjoy taking credit for this momentous occasion but I won’t because I had little to do with it.
The credit needs to go where it is due which is our past City Councils and City Managers like Jim Hardy and Rick Wykoff whose judicious foresight kept Foster City on a steady course of repaying our debt without encumbering the City with new debt.
If you look around Foster City and up and down the peninsula you’ll find cities much older with decades left to pay on their general obligation bond debt. Why is this? Simply put their city councils did not put aside enough money to pay for street improvement, water projects, parks, drainage and other capital improvements.
It’s not always easy to engage in the belt tightening necessary to stay clear of encumbering debt for capital improvement. Foster City knows what it takes to build a City out of reclaimed dirt by borrowing money. We also know that it takes a long time to repay this debt.
It is for these reasons we refuse to take on new debt only to leave it for our children to repay. This is one point my colleagues and I agree upon, that is, don’t spend the money unless you have it and you are certain it’s disposable.
This is why I usually look at Council Member Wykoff’s lead around budget time. It is in part due to his strong direction while serving as our City Manager for 17 years and his fiscally conservative leadership on the City Council for almost 6 years that we enjoy our strong financial balance sheets.
Having repaid the $81,837,000 in our authorized general obligation bonds is something to rejoice upon and congratulate ourselves for. It took what seemed forever and now that the day has come let us also learn from the experience and heed our own best advice, we are debt free and going to stay that way.
Councilmember Kiramis can be reached via e-mail jkiramis@fostercity.org.
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