🚨 MESQUITE TAXPAYERS: THIS IS HOW LONG-TERM DEBT TRAPS START 🚨
The City of Mesquite is proposing to finance short-term items with a long-term debt package through Certificates of Obligation.
That means taxpayers could be paying for items years — maybe decades — after those items are worn out, replaced, obsolete, or already due for another funding cycle.
This is the problem: long-term debt should be used for long-term assets.
But this proposed package includes items like:
📌 50/50 Sidewalk Program — Annual — $250,000
📌 Screening Wall Replacement — Annual — $1,000,000
📌 Street and Alley Reconstruction — Annual — $2,000,000
📌 Computers and Equipment — $435,000
📌 Enterprise Data Storage Equipment — $750,000
📌 Enterprise Network Equipment — $120,000
📌 Enterprise Server and UPS Replacement — $135,000
📌 Fire Ambulance Replacements — $700,000
📌 Vehicles and Equipment for multiple departments — millions more
Read that again: Annual items are being placed into a long-term debt package.
If something is an annual program, why are we borrowing long-term to pay for it?
If equipment, computers, servers, vehicles, and ambulances have limited useful lives, why should taxpayers be paying interest on them for years after they are gone?
This is not responsible budgeting. This is pushing today’s costs into tomorrow’s tax bills.
The City is also bundling necessary infrastructure with short-life purchases and routine replacement items. That makes it harder for residents to object, because some projects may be legitimate — but that does not mean everything belongs in a long-term debt package.
Mesquite residents should be asking:
❓ Why are “Annual” programs being financed with debt?
❓ Why are computers, servers, vehicles, and equipment included in long-term borrowing?
❓ What is the repayment term for each item?
❓ Will taxpayers still be paying after these items are obsolete or replaced?
❓ Why are these costs not handled through the regular budget or replacement funds?
❓ Why is this being done through Certificates of Obligation instead of voter-approved bonds?
This is how cities quietly normalize debt: they package roads with routine expenses, put it on an agenda, and expect taxpayers not to notice the details.
We noticed.
Mesquite taxpayers deserve transparency, separate discussion, and a full explanation before Council approves millions in long-term debt.
Tell City Council:
✅ Pull the item from the Consent Agenda
✅ Table it
✅ Hold a public hearing
✅ Separate true long-term infrastructure from short-term purchases
✅ Stop financing annual expenses with long-term debt
Our tax dollars. Our future. Our voice.
Share this before the vote.