11-14-08 MSBA Presents $41M Check to Woburn for Memorial High School

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      CONTACT:  Carrie Sullivan

November 14, 2008                                                                                (617) 720-4466   

TREASURER CAHILL PRESENTS $41 MILLION CHECK TO WOBURN FOR NEW MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL

Accelerated Reimbursement has Saved Woburn 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 Woburn today to present a $41,076,242 million check for the new Memorial High School. 

Accelerated payments for this “green” educational facility prevented Woburn from having to issue debt to finance the MSBA’s share of project costs saving Woburn taxpayers approximately $15 million in avoided interest costs.  In addition to the $41 million for the high school, Woburn has also received $22 million in accelerated payments from the MSBA for four other school construction projects.

“The new Woburn Memorial High School is an important construction project to this community and I am pleased to present this check, which will save the taxpayers of Woburn approximately $15 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 Woburn and the MSBA,” stated Katherine Craven, MSBA Executive Director.  “The MSBA has reimbursed the City of Woburn over $68 million in accelerated payments for five school construction projects.”

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 -- $3.9 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.