What are the associated costs

Associated Costs
Three important points:
1. All financial estimates at this point in time are conceptual and preliminary. They will change as the project planning process continues.
2. There is no property tax increases planned to pay for project.
3. The developer, Boyer Company, will be incurring all cost to build their development on Trinity Site, the County/Schools do not pay for any part of Boyer’s costs.

• Estimated Cost of demolition and construction to replace dilapidated School and County Maintenance Facilities located on the Trinity Site and build new facilities on the Airport Basin site.
o Total estimated cost is approximately $62 million
• County portion : ~$49 million
• School’s allocated costs: ~$13 million
o This estimate includes most demolition; however there are still some costs elements that are not yet included.

Preliminary Financing Plan
Again, these estimates are conceptual and will change as the project plan is completed. In addition, in light of expected changes in County GRT revenues, the County is actively working on an update to the financing plan outlined below.

Cash – approximately $13 million; Debt – approximately $49 million

• The School’s allocated costs are currently planned to be paid with $1.5 million cash and the remainder to be recovered by the County through the School’s portion of Estimated Project Income (see next section).
• The County’s portion of the costs is currently planned to be paid with $11.5 million in cash and $49 million in debt proceeds. [Note- this totals more than the County’s portion of the costs. The County is expecting to pay all the upfront construction costs, and as noted above, recover most of the School’s allocated costs through the School’s portion of Estimated Project Income.]
• The County is currently planning to fund yearly debt service (estimated to be $4.3 million annually [@6% for 20 years] ) as follows:
o 3/8 cent increase of Gross Receipts Tax -1/8 cent increase went into effect on January 1, 2006 and 2/8 cent increase will go into effect on July 1, 2006. The income projected from the 3/8ths cent tax increase was estimated to be approximately $2.7 million.
o The GRT will have gone from 6.5625% before January 2006 to 6.9375% after the increase in July 2006. This translates to an extra 37.5 cents of cost per $100 spent. [For reference: Area GRT rates: Los Alamos after July1 - 6.9375%, Espanola – 7.5% and Santa Fe – 7.625%. Even with the GRT increase, LA’s tax rate is still significantly lower than the surrounding counties.]
o The remaining $1.6 million of debt service would be paid from Estimated Project Income (see next section).

Estimated Project Income (according to preliminary financial feasibility study)
Once again, these estimates are conceptual and will change as the project plan and development agreement are completed.

o Land Lease Revenue - estimated to be $1.1 million annually (a majority of the land lease revenue is expected to be allocated as the School’s income, however the final percentage will not be know until all the land lease terms have been finalized.)
o New GRT income associated with new retail activity - projected to be revenue of $1.3 million annually

These are not all of the Estimated Project Income sources, but the ones that are most likely to be used to help pay the County’s debt service cost.

This information was first posted on the 9th of September. My current feeling, possibly just worry, is that we are still buying a pig in a poke. I do not understand the real costs to us as residents. It feels like "Take this nice car for a drive and buy it. We will tell you the price later." This is standard politics but not necessarily good sense. Does anyone else get this feeling?