A unanimous vote by the Williams Lake City Council approved a chance to repay a substantial amount of the Cityh’s debt.
A motion sent in by City Chief Financial Officer, Vitali Kozubenko allowed the council to approve repaying the City’s remaining $2,321,083.88 of debt to the Municipal Finance Authority of BC (MFA).
The City borrowed the money in 2006 to build the New Firehall. The MFA sent the City a notice the lending rate on the debt will increase on April 9, 2025, for a five-year period.
Kozubenko’s suggestion to repay the debt early came with pros and cons.
The pros of repaying the debt are the City roughly saved $800,00 to $1,000,000Â The second benefit the City would avoid a refinanced rate that could be doubled or tripled.
The cons were be the City would be dipping into its reserves. With the low tax income expected to come with the City’s proposed budget, replenishing the reserves would be more difficult.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor was onboard with the decision for early repayment.
“We are paying out debt faster than we ever did,” Mayor Rathor said. “We are going to make an extra effort to pay our debt off, and the city council will be in a lot better shape in the years and months to come.”
Mayor Rathor and the rest of the City Council commended Kozubenko for his creativity in finding and taking this opportunity. Mayor Rathor expressing his gratitude on how “fortunate” the community is “to have the staff we have.”
The motion was approved unanimously.
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