Here's the Shake-Down:
Municipal Bonds are debt obligations.
Someone has to pay off the debt service - YOU
One way or another it's money taken out of your pockets in any number of ways: (see the Budget Pie Charts for FY2018/2019 that are inserted farther down)
BOND AND DEBT SERVICE
Source: City of Mesa Open Data Portal
"The City issues debt in the form of bonds to finance long-term capital improvements such as streets, buildings, utility systems, etc., . . .
For the complete City of Mesa Executive Budget Plan click here.
Types of Bonds
The City uses two main types of bond funding in the FY 2018/19 budget:
- General Obligation GO Bonds make up about 30% of City Projects
- Utility Systems Revenue Bonds fund most City Projects
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THE BIG PICTURE
Utility Revenue Bonds
General Obligation GO Bonds
Street/Highways
WIFA
GO Bonds
General Obligation debt service payments are shown in the chart to the right.
Utility Systems Revenue Bonds Debt Service Payments Schecule
Debt service payments for Utility Bonds are funded by rate charges paid by utilities customers.
Here's a Financial Breakdown for Data provided in 2017 that is featured in a New Report from Truth In Accounting that was released on January 28, 2019 
January 28, 2019
On January 29, Truth in Accounting released its third Financial State of the Cities report, a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of the nation's 75 most populous cities based on fiscal year 2017 comprehensive annual financial reports.
This year, the study found that 63 cities do not have enough money to pay all of their bills, and in total, the cities have racked up nearly $330 billion in unfunded municipal debt. The study ranks the cities according to their Taxpayer Burden or Taxpayer Surplus™, which is each taxpayer's share of city bills after available assets have been tapped. Check out the data for your city at the State Data Lab.
Mesa, AZ 
The Bills Mesa has Accumulated
State Bonds * $1,797
Other Liabilities * $267
Less: Debt Related to Capital Assets * $1,658
Unfunded Pension Benefits * $830
Unfunded Retirees' Health Care Benefits * $648
Bills * $1,885
- * figures in millions
Source: State Data Lab Mesa, AZ
(Released 1/29/2019)
| Mesa's Taxpayer Burden.™ is -$5,800, and received a "D" from TIA. |
| Mesa is a Sinkhole City without enough assets to cover its debt. |
| Decisions by elected officials have created a Taxpayer Burden™, which is each taxpayer's share of city bills after its available assets have been tapped. |
| TIA's Taxpayer Burden™ measurement incorporates all assets and liabilities, including retirement obligations. |
| Mesa only has $1.1 billion of assets available to pay bills totaling $1.9 billion. |
| Because Mesa doesn't have enough money to pay its bills, it has a $812.5 million financial hole. To erase this shortfall, each Mesa taxpayer would have to send $5,800 to the city. |
| Mesa's reported net position is overstated by $175.3 million, largely because the city delays recognizing losses incurred when the net pension liability increases. |
| The city's financial report was released 186 days after its fiscal year end, which is considered untimely according to the 180 day standard. |
Some Budget Pies For You to Look from this Fiscal Year 2018/2019
TOTAL CITY BUDGET $1.82B
There are four
Here's one that shows you where the money is spent in Expenditures, by Category >
< Here's another one for Bonds by Project Category
$203.7M
Note the large piece-of-the-budget pie for Wastewater and Water Treatment
Transportation/Streets eats up 12%
Parks
Public Safety
Here's one more
TOTAL AVAILABLE CITY RESOURCES
$1.82B
Looks like "A Balanced Budget" with the same number for Expenditures and Resources
Biggest source of resources:
Sales & Charges for Services: 565.1M
Intergovernmental: $243.2M
Taxes: $208.2M
NOTE: Use of Reserve Balance: $250.3M
This is usually a NO-NO in accounting practice
. . . and just another one
TOTAL CITY BUDGET BY FUND
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Source: Moody's Credit Rating/City of Mesa
Moody's Org ID:600023957
LEI:549300L1QYAKFHSIGE94
6 Digit Cusip: 590485, . . .
Here are four entries for 2019
Notice that some documents are locked. You need to subscribe to open them up.
These are the first four and most recent in 95 results. The first page in the list 1-50 goes back 2012 if you are interested in see the document types.
| 18 Apr 2019 | Credit Opinion | Moody's Investors Service | |
| 18 Apr 2019 | Credit Opinion | Moody's Investors Service | |
| 17 Apr 2019 | Rating Action | Moody's Investors Service | |
| 17 Apr 2019 | Rating Action | Moody's Investors Service |
