[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by thistleclub

City's long-term debt will triple by 2017
(CBC Hamilton, Samantha Craggs, Jan 29 2015)

The city’s long-term debt is expected to reach nearly $1 billion by 2017, which is triple what it was in 2013. And soon, one-seventh of your water bill will go toward paying for it.

City councillors heard on Monday that as of Dec. 31, the city’s long-term debt was about $360 million. That will balloon over the next two years to be $897 million in 2017. That’s a threefold increase from 2013, when it was $294 million.

The main issue is more than $300 million in upgrades and expansions to the Woodward Avenue water and wastewater treatment plants, said Mike Zegarac, head of finance.

Currently, about $40 on an average annual water bill of $600 goes toward paying down debt, he said. By 2019, the average annual household water bill will be $700, and $100 will go toward paying down the city’s debt.

The debt is necessary, he said, for the treatment plant improvements, which will “benefit multiple generations, so we’re debt financing that particular project over 20 years.”

Read it in full here.

That is old news, isn't it? I seem to recall this came up last year around budget time.