[C]ity councilors have delayed their decision whether to put a $70 million bond to renovate the high school on the November ballot.
The council had planned to vote Tuesday, but that meeting was canceled on Friday, in part to accommodate an outstanding petition. The delay will also give the council and the Weinberger administration more time to figure out how much debt the city and schools can take on without negatively affecting the city’s credit rating. The mayor and councilors hoped to determine that debt limit before debating the bond.
The City Council will address the school bond question on Sept. 24, the last regularly scheduled meeting they can consider the proposal for the November ballot.
A sometimes contentious City Council Finance Board meeting earlier this week produced an angry response from one school commissioner, who accused Mayor Miro Weinberger and his council allies who didn’t think the ballot question was ready for November of “playing dice with our children’s future.”
Supporter of the bond say the high school, built in 1964, needs extensive renovations and is impractical for disabled students to maneuver around. The school board this year put forward the most expensive of three renovation options, which ranged from $60 million to $70 million.
However, Weinberger and others raised concerns the bond could put the city over a self-imposed limit of approximately $180 million in outstanding general obligation bonds, an amount they believe will keep the city’s “A” rating.
In 2016, Burlington’s credit rating was upgraded, back to “A” status, after being lowered when city officials improperly used $17 million in taxpayer money to keep afloat Burlington Telecom, a city-run telephone, television and internet service provider.
The city and school debt is combined for rating purposes. All the projects currently approved by voters will amount to $100 million in debt when fully rolled out two years from now, according to Weinberger. The mayor wants to keep the debt below the $180 million threshold to maintain that rating and possibly improve it.
Complicating the decision about the school bond is the strong possibility a $25 million overhaul of Memorial Auditorium could go before voters at the next March Town Meeting Day vote.
The $180 million threshold is based on taking on debt that amounts to no more than 4 percent of the city’s grand list of property. The other measurement Moody’s uses in its ratings is based on a debt of three times city revenues, which Weinberger said would allow the city to take on “significantly” more debt.
The mayor said he supports major repairs at the high school, but also wants “to make sure this doesn’t send us backward in terms of our progress” restoring the city’s credit rating.
“There are pros and cons” to postponing the debate about the bond until later in the month, according to council President Kurt Wright. If approved on the 24th, he said, the tight timeline will give voters less time to understand the proposal before the Nov. 6 vote, while the extra time taken now could clear up the debt questions.
Wright wanted the high school bond to be put before voters in March because it is a local issue. Others, including some school board members and city councilors, said that could pit the school budget against the renovation bond and that the proposal is more likely to succeed in November.
A discrepancy in state statute requires the city to wait until Sept. 20 to see if any petition requests should be placed on the November ballot. A local group, Keep the Park Green, is expected to file a petition requesting city officials overturn a renovation plan for City Hall Park.
The discrepancy in dates when the federal and state ballots must be sent out versus the city ballots means absentee voters will get two ballot packages. That city mailing will include any bond proposals and the advisory questions.
Had the City Council approved placing the school bond on the ballot on Tuesday, the city could have sent out one voter package.
Weinberger said there was confusion in 2016 when the city send out two separate packages but that measures have been taken — including warning voters a second ballot is on the way — that he hopes will lessen the confusion this time around.
In a Facebook post, school commissioner Liz Curry said the mayor and his supporters were playing “political football’’ with the debt limit policy, and that in the meantime, disabled children were getting urinary infections because of the long distances between classes and that “kids must learn in crappy classrooms and labs” from the 1960s.
“People are tired of waiting,” Curry said Friday of the need for high school repairs. She added she expected the two-week delay to be used productively to sort out the debt questions.
City Councilor Jane Knodell said she was skeptical but supports the proposal.
“It would be irresponsible to not do it,” Knodell said.
Knodell said she was prepared to vote on Tuesday, but also did not object to the delay.
“I was worried that pressing for a Sept. 11 (Tuesday) vote would solidify positions, not open up a path to consensus,” Knodell said. “The time has to be well used to justify the delay.”
Councilor Karen Paul said she was optimistic the delay would help the city craft a responsible debt policy. Paul said she wants to support the initiative but not if it “would knowingly place our current credit trajectory at risk.”
Curry and Knodell noted the school has only taxpayers to tap for projects while the city can raise revenue from other taxes other than the property tax.
