When it came to approving $2 billion in school bond funding in recent years and a total debt with interest of well over $3 billion, the voters of the county got to decide. But when it comes to the next massive funding plan – a $572 million capital improvement plan that means tearing down the Truist Bank Building and building a new county government complex with a sky bridge connected to the Old Guilford County Court house – there are no plans to put the funding up to a vote of county residents.
In fact, voters already unknowingly voted to fund a large part of the project when they approved the school bond money – thanks to a semi-magical funding trick known as two-thirds bonds which lets county leaders borrow millions and millions for totally unconnected projects to the one they actually voted for.
Guilford County commissioners got a detailed look at how the county plans to pay for a massive slate of building projects during a recent work session in the Blue Room – now known as the Carolyn Q Coleman Conference room of the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro…