10-23-08 MSBA Presents $6.9M Check to Lexington for Fiske Elementary School

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      CONTACT:  Carrie Sullivan

October 23, 2008                                                                                   (617) 720-4466   

TREASURER CAHILL PRESENTS $6.9 MILLION CHECK TO LEXINGTON FOR FISKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Monthly Reimbursements have Saved Lexington Taxpayers Millions in Avoided Interest Costs

BOSTON, MA – State Treasurer Tim Cahill, Chair of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), and Katherine Craven, MSBA Executive Director, were in Lexington today to present a $6,994,361 Million check for the newly renovated Fiske Elementary School.

This educational facility is being reimbursed under the MSBA’s Pro-Pay “pay-as-you-build” system.  Under this system, communities are reimbursed monthly as school construction costs are incurred. These timely payments have prevented Lexington from having to issue debt to finance the MSBA’s share of projects costs saving Lexington taxpayers approximately $4 million in avoided interest costs.

In addition to the $6.9 Million in state reimbursement for the elementary school, Lexington was also a recipient of the MSBA’s school construction loan program. This one-time loan provided $1.8 Million to the Town of Lexington to jumpstart renovations on the elementary school.

“The newly renovated Fiske Elementary School is an important construction project to this community and I am pleased to present this check, which will save the taxpayers of Lexington approximately

$4 million in avoided interest costs,” said Treasurer Cahill.  “As we move forward with this program, we’re focused on following a needs-based, fiscally responsible blueprint for future school construction statewide.”

“This is a great milestone for both Lexington and the MSBA,” stated Katherine Craven, MSBA Executive Director.  “Having worked with the Town of Lexington from the very beginning on this project, it gives me great pride to see it come to fruition.”

During the next five years, the MSBA will collaborate 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. 

To date, the MSBA has made approximately $5.8 billion in reimbursements to cities and towns for school construction projects inherited from the former program -- $3.3 billion of which are accelerated “payments-in-full” to districts which had been waiting years for a partial payment from the state prior to the creation of the MSBA.  Those payments have saved municipalities millions of dollars in interest costs and reinvigorated a system that once had $11 billion in outstanding obligations. In its three year history, the MSBA has successfully contained the Commonwealth’s formerly rampant and unsustainable financial liability for the costs of 1,150 local school construction projects and last year was able to reopen a sustainable, reformed grant program as a result of programmatic reforms and sound fiscal management.