TYLERTOWN — Walthall County supervisors started the process of selling more than $5 million in bonds to fund a countywide paving project.
The board voted 4-0, in board President Larry Montgomery’s absence, to authorize Crews and Associates to begin the preliminary paperwork for a bond sale.
The board also hired the Butler Snow law firm of Ridgeland and Mord Law Firm, owned by board attorney Conrad Mord, to perform the legal work necessary for the sale.
Being backed by the county’s share of internet sales taxes, the bond issue is from a third to a little more than half of what the county could attempt to raise through a bond sale.
Crews representatives Lucien Bourgeois and Greg McMurray said the county could get up to $14 million over a 15-year term, $9 million to $10 million over a 12-year term or about $8 million fora 10-year term.
Finding buyers for the bonds could be difficult, however, because the county doesn’t have a recent financial audit.
Chancery Clerk Shannon Fortinberry said the last audit completed was for fiscal year 2017. Deputy Clerk Tonya Wilson said that audit was completed by Fortenberry and Ballard, and she thought the State Auditor’s Office was supposed to have done the more recent audits.
The State Auditor’s Office used to audit about a quarter of counties every year, so that each county was audited by the state once every four years, but that was before the tenure of sitting Auditor Shad White.
The lack of more current audits “is an issue,” Bourgeois said. Bidders on bonds “want to know your current situation, not what it was three years ago.”
Because banks or other bidders might not want to offer lower interest rates without having more current financial information, “you’re losing money because you’re not up to date,” McMurray said.
Bourgeois said they could start the process of issuing the bonds, but the county needs to catch up on its audits before seeking public bids or attempting to place the bonds privately.
“This is a good time to leverage these funds,” county engineer Jeff Dungan said. “Every day you wait, it’s going to cost more.”
Bourgeois said once the bonding process has advanced to advertisement and received no objections, the board can accept an interest rate and then has two years to issue the bonds.
“The interest rate is good today,” Bourgeois said. “Once you settle on a bid, it’s set.”
At an issuance amount of $5 million — possibly a little more, to cover fees — estimated annual payments on the bonds would be about $600,000 of the approximately $1.4 million the county expected to receive in internet sales taxes starting next year.
The board accepted a $4.7 million bid from T.L. Wallace Construction for the countywide paving project earlier this month. The contact includes indexing to allow for fluctuating fuel prices, which could increase or lower the actual cost of the projects.
The project is also divided into different pieces that can be added or cut to address cost restraints.
The board originally intended to use federal American Rescue Plan Act monies converted to local funds and some of the county’s internet sales tax money to pay for the project out of pocket without having to use some of the funds to pay fees and interest on bonds.
A number of other counties are bonding the internet sales tax monies for projects, including Lincoln and Copiah counties. Bourgeois said Crews has also helped Itawamba and Wayne counties with $5 million issues.
