By Michael Novotny, Salado ISD Superintendent

Last week we successfully refinanced $3.135 million of previous bonds from an interest rate of 4.00% to an interest rate of 1.44%.  This will save the taxpayers of our school district between $29,325 and $34,900 per year for the next eight years, for a total savings of $255,100.

This is the fourth time in the last five years that we have refinanced previous bonds to a lower interest rate.

Here is a summary of all four bond refinances during the past five years:

Date                        Amount                Original        New           Amount

of Bonds                                                 % Rate        %                 Saved

Oct. 2011                  $940,000             5.06%        2.03%       $102,256

Feb. 2013                 $8,625,000        4.83%           2.57%       $1,532,727

March  2015            $5,450,000         4.80%          3.26%       $1,248,254

Jan. 2016                 $3,135,000         4.00%           1.44%        $255,100

These bonds were refinanced at different times because bonds have to be in existence for at least ten years before they are eligible to be refinanced.   As a result of all four of these bond refinances, the taxpayers of Salado will save a total of $3,138,337.

These savings have helped us reduce the Salado ISD tax rate.  Our school district tax rate is now the lowest it has been in the last fifteen years.  In fact, in the last twenty-five years (since the 1990-1991 school year) there is only one school year (1997-1998) in which we had a lower tax rate than our current rate.  Our tax rate is also lower than the majority of the other school districts in Bell County.  This recent refinancing of bonds will hopefully allow us to lower our tax rate again next year.  While we are very proud of the excellent education that we provide to our students, we also work very hard to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ hard earned dollars that pay for our students’ education.