Lake Norman Publications

Huntersville in ‘admirable’ financial shape as it approaches town hall funding



General outline of the new $28 million town hall vision adopted by Huntersville commissioners. /Town of Huntersville

HUNTERSVILLE – The town board’s Sept. 20 session began with a fast-paced, dollar-focused, graduate-level cram course on municipal money matters that – more than likely – was the first of several such sessions in the process of preparing to finance a new town hall estimated to require an investment of at least $29 million.

But the clearest point in the presentation delivered by Mitch Brigulio from Davenport Public Finance emphasized the town is in “admirable” and “enviable” financial shape with multiple funding options posing a range of potential tax rate impacts to consider as the process for paying for the town facilities upgrade unfolds.

Monday’s pre-meeting presentation came 13 days after the board, in a 4-2 split vote, agreed to “approve and fund” construction of a new four-story, 54,500-square-foot town hall building that, combined with renovations on the current town hall building, will provide 62,000 square feet of municipal administrative and community meeting space. The total project will include the current town hall site and adjacent town-owned property, including a vacant 1.3 parcel along N.C. 115, to create a town office campus envisioned as a “50-year fix” for local government operations.

In his summation of the town’s current financial condition, Brigulio’s collection of terms – with references to Huntersville’s triple-A credit rating – included “good,” “gold,” “great” and “very strong” and he identified town policies regulating debt management as a key component.

He also whizzed through charts and figures outlining how much debt the town could absorb – with and without budgeted tax rate adjustments – as well as how much debt the town should pursue to remain aligned with its own high standards on acceptable debt-to-budget, debt-to-tax base and other annual revenue-expenditure ratios.

A notable point from Brigulio, based on the town’s financial status and policies, indicated the town could accept up to $25.8 million in new debt – issued in three stages between 2024 and 2029, with the bulk, $20 million, absorbed in 2024 aligned with the midpoint of planned construction of the new town hall – without needing additional revenue, like a property tax increase.

He followed with data showing with a 1.5-cent bump in the local tax rate starting in Fiscal Year 2025, the town could manage nearly $58 million in new debt, which could be applied to the town hall project or other items on the town’s continuously evolving $200 million list of prioritized capital improvement projects.

Brigulio’s presentation, closed with a major understatement – “A lot of information in just under 45 minutes,” he told commissioners – was accompanied by a packet of documents for commissioners to review.

The topic will, undoubtedly, be revisited as the town board irons out options for town hall financing, including a potential November 2023 local bond referendum previously identified as a likely scenario.

Later, during the board’s regular session, commissioners – by the same 4-2 vote alignment, with Lance Munger and Derek Partee opposed, that approved the town hall project on Sept. 6 – authorized an amendment adding $1.8 million to a preliminary design contract with the Edifice-Creech team working on the town hall project, and approved a $3 million fund balance expenditure, with a reimbursement process included, for project architectural services

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