PART FIVE: BEFORE WE ADD $288 MILLION... WHAT DOES CHIPPEWA VALLEY ALREADY OWE?
Dearest reader,
Lady Budgetdown has spent four posts examining Chippewa Valley Schools' proposed $288 million bond.
We've looked at the state loan program.
We've looked at interest.
We've looked at what the district proposes to buy.
We've looked at the phrase "0 mill increase."
But there is one rather enormous question we haven't put on the ledger yet.
Before we add another $288 million...
What does Chippewa Valley already owe?
Oh, dearest reader.
Fetch the climbing boots.
We have a mountain. 🏔�👓
Let's begin with the district's most recent audited financial statements.
As of June 30, 2025, Chippewa Valley reported:
$355,770,000
in outstanding general-obligation bond principal.
Not original borrowing.
Not future interest.
Outstanding principal.
The amount still sitting on the bond ledger.
And that $355.77 million wasn't one bond.
The district's audited debt schedule shows eight separate outstanding bond issues or refundings:
2015 Refunding Series A
$13,705,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2027
2016 Refunding Series A
$35,935,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2035
2016 Refunding Series B
$5,905,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2027
2018 Building & Site — Series 1
$54,225,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2043
2019 Refunding
$94,425,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2032
2020 Debt Refunding
$83,320,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2034
2021 Refunding
$32,015,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2033
2023 Building & Site & Refunding
$36,240,000 remaining
Final maturity: 2043
Total:
$355,770,000.
Now, Lady B needs to stop here for one very important receipt.
See the word "refunding" all over that list?
That matters.
A refunding bond generally replaces or refinances existing bond debt.
So Lady Budgetdown is NOT going to add every old bond authorization, every subsequent refunding and every current bond together and announce some enormous lifetime borrowing number.
That would count some debt more than once.
And we don't inflate numbers around here merely because the inflated number would make a prettier Facebook graphic.
Receipts first.
Drama second.
Although sometimes the receipts provide plenty of drama on their own.
Because regular bonds aren't the entire debt picture.
Remember Part One?
Michigan's School Bond Loan Fund.
Chippewa Valley's 3881 lists its SBLF beginning date as:
1967.
And the new Treasury application estimates the district will still have approximately:
$33,286,048
in the state loan fund at the election date.
So, using the election-date figures in the district's own Treasury application, we arrive here:
Existing outstanding bond principal:
$323,265,000
PLUS
Estimated School Bond Loan Fund balance:
$33,286,048
EQUALS:
$356,551,048
That is the existing bond principal plus estimated state-loan balance incorporated into the Treasury application's election-date financing picture.
Before adding the proposed bond.
And now...
Here comes the next layer of our mountain.
🏔�
Chippewa Valley is asking voters to authorize:
+$288,000,000
in new bond principal.
So:
$356,551,048
existing bond principal + estimated state-loan balance
PLUS
$288,000,000
proposed new bond principal
EQUALS:
$644,551,048.
And Lady B didn't invent that number either.
The district's own Treasury application reports:
"Current & Proposed Bond Debt plus SBLF"
$644,551,048.
Now look at the timeline.
Some of Chippewa Valley's existing bond principal is scheduled all the way through:
2043.
And the proposed 2026 bonds?
The ballot language permits them to remain outstanding for as long as:
25 years.
Which potentially takes that borrowing into the early 2050s, depending upon the actual issuance dates and structure.
That is why looking only at the $288 million ballot number doesn't show the entire debt picture.
But...
We're STILL not finished.
Because principal is only one side of borrowing money.
Remember Part Two?
The district's Treasury financing model estimates:
$219,936,638
in interest on the proposed bonds.
And approximately:
$20,646,936
in estimated interest associated with the additional state-loan borrowing contemplated by the proposal.
Combined estimated interest associated with the proposed financing:
$240,583,574.
So let's look at our mountain one more time.
Existing bond principal + estimated state-loan balance:
$356,551,048
Proposed new bond principal:
+$288,000,000
Current + proposed bond debt + SBLF:
$644,551,048
And separately:
Estimated interest associated with the proposed financing:
+$240,583,574.
Now...
DO NOT add those together and call the result "Chippewa Valley's debt."
Lady B certainly won't.
Why?
Because $644.55 million is a principal/debt-balance measure from the Treasury application.
The $240.58 million is estimated future interest associated with the proposed financing.
Different columns.
Different measurements.
Both important.
And both deserve to be understood.
But perhaps the most fascinating part of this story isn't even the size of today's mountain.
It's how long Chippewa Valley has been building and refinancing it.
Michigan Treasury's bond-election records show voter-approved Chippewa Valley bond authorizations including:
1997 — $83.41 million
2001 — $104.08 million
2004 — $168.40 million
2010 — $89.765 million
2018 — $97 million.
And now:
2026 — proposed $288 million.
Again...
Lady Budgetdown is NOT adding those numbers together.
Some old debt has been paid.
Some has been refinanced.
Some of today's outstanding bonds are refundings of earlier obligations.
The historical authorizations tell us where portions of this long debt story began.
The current debt schedules tell us what remains.
And those are not the same thing.
But there is one historical detail I find particularly interesting.
Go all the way back to the 2001 ballot.
Chippewa Valley asked voters for $104.08 million.
And the ballot information told voters the estimated millage increase that year would be:
0 mills.
Why?
Because the existing 7.65-mill rate required under the School Bond Loan Act would continue. ([Treasury Secure][1])
Twenty-five years later...
Chippewa Valley is proposing $288 million.
And once again, the proposed increase from the current debt millage is:
0 mills.
Well.
There's a breadcrumb worth remembering.
None of this tells voters whether Chippewa Valley needs the projects in the 2026 proposal.
None of this tells voters whether those projects are worth their cost.
And none of it tells anyone how to vote.
Those are separate questions.
But before deciding whether to place another $288 million onto a district's debt schedule, Lady Budgetdown thinks taxpayers deserve to see the mountain underneath it.
Not just the next layer.
Because this story does not begin with:
$288 million.
It begins decades earlier.
And according to the district's current audited schedule, portions of today's existing bond debt already stretch to 2043.
The proposed bonds could extend the borrowing timeline beyond that.
That isn't an argument.
It's a ledger.
And now you have it.
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With receipts and respect.
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[1]: https://treas-secure.state.mi.us/apps/findschoolbondelectinfo.asp?countyname=50&schooldistrictname=All.. "School Bond Election Search Results"