After raising taxes
by nearly 18 percent, the city of Orlando is about to incur more debt.
On Monday, the city
council is set to approve taking on $106 million in debt, to pay, in part,
to move the Orlando Police Station and make way for the Magic’s
entertainment complex.
“We’re going to do
energy efficiency measures and construct the police station. We’re going to pay
for that debt with savings generated from the capital construction related to
the energy efficiency measures,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.
“There were
predictions similar to this for the infamous Geico Garage. It was all going to
get paid for, now we find out that they have to dip into reserves to pay for
the Geico Garage,” Head said.
Fifty-million-dollars
of the debt is to make way for the Magic’s new sports and entertainment
complex, by moving OPD’s headquarters and by moving a fire station for a soccer
stadium.
Thirty-million-dollars
will go to refund older debt at a lower interest rate, and another $17 million
will go to energy efficiency projects.
Those are the
projects the mayor contends will save money by making the city more energy
efficient, so it will eventually pay for the $106 million in bonds.
Some taxpayers, like
Doug Head, leader of County Watch, don’t buy it.