Jefferson County, Ala.'s plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection hinges in part on the sale of $1.9 billion of new debt this fall to refinance debt tied to its troubled sewer system, but some observers call terms of the new debt onerous, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The proposal for the refinancing, which has been approved by a majority of county commissioners, includes a set of bonds that schedule larger debt payments in the later years of the financing. All told, Jefferson County taxpayers would stand to repay nearly $6.9 billion over the four-decade term of the financing, more than three times the amount the county initially plans to borrow. That is perhaps billions more than they would pay under a plan whose payments would be more evenly distributed, said a potential investor.
