On Tuesday’s ballot, there will be two bond issue questions before Augusta voters. One would fund important conservation and safety improvements to Gilbert Elementary School and the other would fund the reconstruction of residential streets on the city’s East Side. As your mayor and as your school board chair, we are in full support of both of these investments. We are writing this column to explain why and to encourage the voters of Augusta to also support these investments.

These are challenging times financially for our city government and school department. The City Council and School Board are conservative and very selective about advancing projects that commit scarce city dollars. In the case of these two bond questions, there is unanimous support from each body for their particular project.

In keeping with the long-range facilities planning goals for the Augusta School Department, Question 2 asks voters to continue upgrading and modernizing the Gilbert Elementary School. In March of 2011 voters overwhelmingly approved a bond to address air quality and ventilation issues as part of the Revolving Renovation Project for Schools through the Maine Department of Education. This project was completed on time, within budget, and Gilbert is now a better learning environment for our kids.

The School Department has successfully got a qualified school construction bond (QSBC) in the amount of $355,980 to replace windows and makeAmericans with Disabilities/handicapped accessibility renovations to Gilbert. The QSCB is a tax credit bond program established through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This program allows lenders to receive tax credits from the federal government in lieu of interest payments from the issuer of the bond. It is the most favorable financing terms we could ask for.

Funds obtained through the issuance of QSABs must be used for qualified purposes which include construction, rehabilitation, or repair of a public school building. Communities who agree to accept QSAB funding have 30 years to repay the borrowed amount.

Tapping federal money is a great way to finance construction in the Augusta School Department. Gilbert Elementary School is Augusta’s largest elementary school building at 57,870 square feet. The building has been well maintained since 1971. The windows and ADA improvements will make it more energy efficient and allow students and visitors to more adequately use the building.

The street improvements bond question asks for voter approval to issue $1.1 million in a fifteen-year bond to reconstruct portions of School and Patterson streets (and if there’s enough money, some related street improvements in that neighborhood). In this case, no General Fund tax money will be required to make the annual principal and interest payments on the debt because several years ago the city created a tax-increment financing district around the new commercial development at Cony Circle (primarily the new Hannaford and CVS stores) and dedicated the new resultant tax revenues to public improvements in the nearby residential neighborhoods.

TIFs are complicated to understand, but in this case, the developers got none of the benefit of sheltering the new tax revenues. Each year for the life of the Cony Circle TIF, there is about $170,000 dedicated to public improvements and available to rebuild streets in the surrounding neighborhoods. By issuing a bond next year we can raise enough money to tackle two of our most deteriorated streets, have projects of sufficient scope to get good prices from contractors, take advantage of historically low long-term interest rates, and use the predictable flow of the TIF revenues to offset the annual debt payments. This project would not result in the need to raise property taxes whatsoever.

Though times are challenging for local governments (including our schools), it’s a sure bet that we are not going out of business as a city and for that reason we need to continue to make prudent long-term investments in our key assets. The bond issue for Gilbert assures that the next generation of children attending there will do so in a proper environment. The bond issue for neighborhood street improvements reassures residents that the city respects the investments that homeowners and others make in their properties in Augusta and exemplifies the community’s ongoing commitment to maintaining its infrastructure.

As your chief elected officials, we hope you agree with our rationale for supporting these projects and we encourage you to vote for these measures. Please contact us with any questions or concerns you might have.

Mayor William Stokes and Board of Education Chairman William Burney.