Local governments taking on debt to make an investment must ensure three things. First, the expenditure must have the potential to improve the city’s financial position. Taking on debt for a project that provides some quality-of-life benefit today – for example, improving the flow of traffic – can only be justified when all maintenance obligations are accounted for, there is no debt, and the community broadly supports repaying the obligation in short order. You don’t put in a swimming pool when your roof is leaking. Second, the improvement in the city’s financial position must be measurable in
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