Did You Know? Bonds

  • Monday, April 14, 2025
  • Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers

The never-ending positive news (propaganda?) emulating from local municipalities, county governments, states, and nations somehow always omits the minor fact that the release of a new “bond issue” also includes additional debt to said governing bodies (and its citizens tax payers).

A variety of definitions of the term can quickly be found by googling the words on a computer operated by your pre-day care descendant.

One such research finding follows:

“A bond is a debt instrument, essentially a loan made by an investor to a corporation, government, or other entity where the issuer promises to repay the principal (face value) and pay interest at a specified rate over a set period.”

A perchance discovery of a well prepared glowing news release by a Tennessee municipality in November, 2023 proudly proclaimed that “their city successfully conducted a sale of almost $43,000,000 of General Obligation Bonds in the competitive bond market at “an interest rate well below the current prime rate and the federal fund rate” due to strong economic conditions in? (Identity of locales and specific amount of debt are not disclosed to protect the political future and health of incumbent or prospective candidates serving the general population when the subject of a potential property tax increase are mentioned. Heart attacks and strokes are common to politicos with the release of said data.)

The absolute accurate and foolproof prediction that only 1 in 3 property owners would suffer an increase in owning a piece of Mother Earth while another 1 in 3 would receive a tax rate reduction that would allow them to purchase addition lottery tickets to increase their chances of buying a March 2025 Tesla war wagon and automobile fire insurance policy is very reassuring to the tax paying public.

The remaining 1 in 3 property owners in the zero increase/decrease zone will only have to endure minor concerns such as inflation of egg prices, gasoline fluctuations per gallon, and a variety of benefits that temporarily appear when the national debt reaches 37,000,000,000,000 (that’s trillions folks!)

(I think I might just smoke a pack of Camels, eat a box of Girl Scout cookies, inhale the fresh, non-toxic environment locations in the former “Dynamo of Dixie” and eagerly await my January 1, 2025 reappraisal card.)

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If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact him at jsummers@summersfirm.com)

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