BOSTON, MA - State Treasurer Tim Cahill, Chairman of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), and Katherine Craven, MSBA Executive Director, today presented a $2,541,724 check to the Town of Medway.
This debt relief payment retires the state’s share of debt for the project at Memorial Elementary and retires 80% of the total remaining debt associated with the project. By paying down this debt now, the taxpayers of the Town of Medway will avoid interest costs of approximately $300,000.
“These are tough economic times, but because the MSBA has always exerted fiscal restraint, we are able to help Medway by making this payment that will allow the school district to pay off 80% of its remaining debt from the Memorial Elementary School project,” said Treasurer Tim Cahill, Chairman of the MSBA.“The MSBA’s flexibility to make these types of debt relief payments is a significant benefit to cities, towns and regional school districts,” said Katherine Craven, Executive Director of the MSBA.
The MSBA is collaborating with municipalities to equitably invest up to $2.5 billion in schools across the Commonwealth by finding the right-sized, most fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate solutions to create safe and sound learning environments.
The MSBA is committed to protecting the taxpayer’s dollar by improving the school building grant process and avoiding the mistakes of the past in the funding and construction of school facilities.The MSBA has reformed the Commonwealth’s formerly rampant and unsustainable program, which had accumulated $11 billion in debt. In 2007, as a result of programmatic reforms and sound fiscal management, the MSBA was able to reopen a sustainable, reformed grant program.
In its six year history, the MSBA has made more than $7 billion in reimbursements to cities, towns and regional school districts for school construction projects. These timely payments have saved municipalities over $2.9 billion in avoided local interest costs and have provided much needed cash flow to communities in these difficult economic times.###