What Will the City Borrow?

Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:12 AM PDT

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We're still waiting for comment from city officials and others on today's news about the city of San Diego's return to Wall Street after nearly four years of brutal banishment.

But, more than a year ago, as it appeared the city was inching closer to the market, I put together this story listing the possible projects that city officials would undertake once they were able to borrow money again.

Here's a snippet:

In the next five years, the Mayor's Office is contemplating seeking loans of $218 million for buildings and facilities; $300 million for streets and storm drains; $493 million for the pension system; and $1.4 billion for the water and wastewater systems.

Officials caution that the infrastructure numbers are estimates and the pension sum might not be reached solely through borrowing.

But when taken together, the projects in the pipeline have the potential to more than double the bond debt currently carried by the city -- and nearly triple the debt burden on the city's day-to-day operating budget. The influx would provide the city with large injections of borrowed cash to complete street and building repairs, meet its pension obligations and comply with health laws.

Now, here's an important caveat: We don't know at the moment how much these plans have changed in the past 14 months or so. We should be able to find out soon when officials speak to the announcement.

-- ANDREW DONOHUE