Stone Creek Unused Debt Repeal

On November 4, 2014, the electors of Stone Creek Metropolitan District authorized debt of up to $234,000,000 at an interest rate not to exceed 12%: $198,000,000 for infrastructure improvements, $18,000,000 for operations and $18,000,000 for refunding the district's debt. The district's 2024 audit lists the same $234,000,000 as 13 purposes of $18,000,000 each, among them streets, storm drainage, fire protection, television relay and intergovernmental agreements.

Question 6C asks whether all unused debt authorization granted by voters in all prior elections should be forever repealed and rescinded, effective immediately. It sets no new tax and no new debt. Questions 6D through 6G, on the same ballot, each ask whether to repeal one 2014 ballot issue authorizing multiple fiscal year agreements.

The repeal reaches unused authorization only. The district has used part of the 2014 grant for its 2018 bonds, an equipment lease and a $9,683,000 loan from Zions Bank, taken on December 13, 2023, which refinanced the 2018 bonds and paid for $500,000 in park and recreational facilities. The loan is due December 1, 2053. It carries 5.50% interest, reset every five years beginning December 1, 2030, and pledged revenue that includes the district's required mill levy secures it. State property tax data for 2025 show a bond levy of 32.852 mills in the district.

At the end of 2024, the audit counted $214,767,933 of the voters' authorization as remaining, including $8,817,000 in the refunding category, and said the remaining authorization will expire under state law in November 2034, 20 years after the 2014 election.

Douglas County approved the district's Service Plan on September 23, 2014. The 2014 Service Plan limits the district's debt to $18 million. It limits each bond issue, including refunding and refinancing, to 30 years from its original issuance date. It limits interest to the market rate when debt is issued and specifies a maximum voted interest rate of 12% in a default. The audit counted $8,450,933 of that limit as unused at the end of 2024. Question 6C addresses only the authority voters granted, not the Service Plan.

On June 30, 2026, the district board unanimously approved a Debt Reduction Resolution for the November election, after discussing its general counsel's opinion that a Service Plan amendment could reduce the amount of debt the district can take on. At the August 12 meeting, Director Holly Green and Charles Wolfersberger, of Wolfersberger, LLC, discussed a November measure intended to reduce the district's existing borrowing authority, which the minutes put at "approximately $200 million under the Service Plan and prior ballot authorizations."