How we're paying for accelerated repairs

A bit more on the school buildings through the capital budget:
First, a correction: our best estimate previously had been that the next round of accelerated repairs--windows at Columbus Park, Tatnuck Magnet, Worcester Arts Magnet, and Worcester East Middle, plus a boiler for Columbus Park, and a boiler and a roof for Worcester East Middle--that were approved in June would be somewhere around $15 million; the DPW is now estimating something more like $13 million, which is what here is allocated. (Still not going to cover the high schools in any way)

Now from a purely fiscal geek angle, here's where this gets fun: if you turn to page 3 (or page 5, if you go by the numbers at the top), you'll see this line halfway down the page:

School Rehabilitation   13,000,000     400,000    7,118,600    7,518,600

So, the first line is the "FY14 Loan Order" BUT the $400,000 is all that they are actually borrowing that's new, because:

in previous years, the City Council has authorized $7,118,600 in borrowing.
BUT
the City administration hasn't actually borrowed any of it.

So how are they managing that? Well, MSBA is very good at paying their reimbursements in a timely fashion. So when the City gets a bill, they forward it to MSBA, who pays their 80% and the city can cover the rest without needing the loans.
So when they have to do this next round of MSBA borrowing, they don't have to borrow the $13,000,000 or anything like it.They need to authorize it--MSBA requires that--but the city is paying for it out of (essentially) day-to-day operating money.
Pretty cool, huh?
Fun post on the rest of the capital budget coming up next!