Opinion

Voters should fight costly bond issues

Posted January 02, 2008 10:00 pm

Whenever your local body of government wants to finance a project with a bond issue, guess what. It's going to cost you more! You're going to have to pay for all that interest.

On Saturday, Dec. 8, the Daily Herald itemized all the proposed bond issues in DuPage County that will be up for vote in the next election. The total I got was $265.85 million. Assume that all those bonds totaling that amount were issued at 6 percent interest. Taxpayers would have to cough up $15.951 million in interest in the first year alone! That there's real money folks! That comes out of your pocket!

A better way when wanting to finance a project would be for each government entity to save up ahead of time to cover the capital cost. Then, build it! Resultant interest cost: zero. Plus, in saving up, your government body would earn some interest of its own, thus cutting the capital cost of your project!

Fight those bond issues! Save up ahead of time! Do it the old-fashioned way.

Joe Schrantz Villa Park

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