The Hawk Eye
The Burlington City Council may violate one of its own financing policies several times in the next 10 years.
It has been a goal of the city council to not use more than 70% of its total debt capacity. Based on current projections, however, the city will violate this policy in four of the next 10 years. That is our goal and there are going to be times when we are under and times when we are over, Burlington Mayor Jon Billups said.
In Iowa, cities are limited in their ability to borrow debt to 5% of their total assessed property valuation. For Burlington, the Fiscal Year 2022 limit is set at $72.5 million and the city is expected to carry $51 million, which amounts to 70.5% of its limit.