As the City of Meridian looks toward future paving and capital improvement projects, Mayor Jimmie Smith said a bond issue should be considered to cover the costs.

In a meeting Tuesday, Smith told the council he was recommending a $20 million bond issue to tackle needed improvements throughout the city.

“We have over 44 total buildings in the City of Meridian that are under our control,” he said. “We need to make sure we are providing the necessary tools to make things better than they are.”

Smith said his recommendation is to spend about $12 million on paving, with the rest of the funds earmarked for recreation. The city, he said, has not done a good job of maintaining its parks and recreational opportunities, and that needs to be corrected.

“I don’t think we’ve done a good job in the past of making sure recreational stuff is taken care of like it should be,” he said. “Every road around parks needs paving and every park has something that needs to be taken care of.”

Tray Hairston of Butler Snow LLC, who has helped the city with previous bond issues, urged the council and administration to sit down and decide what needs to be done and how much it will cost to fix the issues.

With rising interest rates, Hairston said moving quickly was key to limiting the costs to the city.

“Money is a little bit more expensive now,” he said.

There is $362 million of assessed property on the tax roles in Meridian, Hairston said, and state law allows the city to borrow money up to 15% of the assessed values. The city currently has about $29 million in debt, he said, which means the city can borrow about $24 million more.

“You’re well within your legal right, your legal ability as a city to issue up to $24 million,” he said.

Hairston also encouraged the council to keep in mind the bond funds needed to comply with the EPA consent decree. While those funds are paid for out of the water fund and aren’t included in the 15% limit, he said exploring how to avoid or minimize a tax increase would help ease the burden on Meridian residents, who are already on the hook for multiple increases to their water rates.

Councilman Dwayne Davis said the city had previously issued $6 million paving bonds in 2020 and again in 2021 for paving using the internet sales tax collections to pay the debt. If another bond is needed, he said he would like to see a similar arrangement where the debt can be paid without raising taxes.

Davis said he was also concerned about how money from the previous bonds were spent and would like the city council to have more of a say in what projects future bond money is put toward.

Hairston said he would recommend discussing the bond issue in a future work session to come up with a game plan of how much needed to be borrowed, how to pay for it and what projects the money would cover. With interest rates expected to continue rising, he said any bond issue should be done sooner rather than later.

“Time is of the essence,” he said.