Fife Schools Refinances Bonds - Taxpayers Save

The Fife School District has refinanced a portion of its outstanding bonds in order to take advantage of lower interest rates.  The recent refinancing will save the district’s taxpayers a total of nearly $1.4 million during the next thirteen years.  These savings flow directly to taxpayers through reduced tax levies and are not available for district expenses.  This is a direct savings to our community members in the form of taxes that you would have expected, but will not have to pay.

The Fife School Board accomplished these savings by approving the issuance of $22,585,000 in refunding bonds at its meeting held on January 10, 2007.  We have been monitoring bond market conditions over the past year and recent low interest rates allowed us to actually exceed our savings target.  Interest rates averaged 4.17% on the new bonds compared to 5.26% on the old debt.