County taxpayers will save more than $1 million in interest payments, thanks to an effort by County Treasurer Scott D. German to refinance four old bond issues.
German got permission from the County Legislature in January to try to refinance the bonds, and closed on all four issues -- from 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2001 -- on March 16.
The total savings turned out to be $1,113,632.50 over the next six years.
"We did better in the market place than we anticipated, we did about 10% better than expected,” German said in a press release today. "I couldn’t be happier to help provide these savings to the taxpayers.
The $10.7 million in bonds helped build the court facility, make improvements to the county building and old courthouse, build the GCC technology center and renovate the county nursing home.
From the press release:
Since we are experiencing low rates of interest in the bond market, German asked Fiscal Advisors, the county’s financial advisor, to take a look at refinancing to see if it was worth while, “as it turned out it was a gigantic savings to the taxpayers,” German said. “It is not often that I can save taxpayers over a million dollars, I am so glad I asked the question,” German said. “Bottom line, this is a great savings to Genesee County taxpayers."
