They charged it.

By a 4-1 vote, officials decided to borrow $2.1 million, but in such a way that taxpayers won't face repayment of the debt for 17 years, when a series of balloon payments erase the loan. The trade off for the 16 years of low principal payments is an extra $600,000 in interest payments over the 20-year term of the bond.

Technically called "wrapping" the bond, the financing package allows borrowing with very small principal payments over most of the term. Mt. Lebanon will pay $5,000 on the principal for 12 of the first 16 years of repayment. The final three principal payments, 2026-2028, will be $475,000, $500,000 and $880,000.

It's not the first time "wrapping" has been used in Mt. Lebanon. Resident William Matthews pointed out that the school district "wrapped" $50 million in bonds for the elementary school renovations, leading to $10 million in extra interest. For the $115 million high school, the district intends to "wrap" two of the three bonds ($47.7 million), leading to an extra $10 million in interest over 25 years.

"They are going to say, no, we do what the municipality tells us. You are going to say, we do what the financial advisors tell us. That's the problem. We never get much accountability here. Someone has to be accountable for how we do these bond issues," Matthews said.

The extra interest cost with this bond, Matthews said, will wipe out any extra tax revenue the municipality receives from the future LA Fitness club on Castle Shannon Boulevard.

Commissioner Dan Miller agreed. He opposed the bond for several reasons.

He said the procedure on June 22 violated the intent of the Sunshine Law by cutting off public questions on the sidewalks, because the hearing on the bond was not advertised to include sidewalk repair. And the vote to approve the bond was held immediately after the a hearing to discuss street repair.

"I never said I would approve a bond issue with sidewalks," Miller said. "Streets should be done every year. Sidewalks should be done every year. In December I voted against taking sidewalks out of the budget. Sidewalks should have been in the budget. But the majority decided to take sidewalks out of the budget. Now what the majority is doing, is taking a routine annual expense and putting it in a bond issue. So over 20 years instead of paying dollar to dollar, we are paying interest on the debt. At the end of the day, we are spending $3.7 million on a $2.1 million bond.

"By taking out sidewalks from the 2009 budget we were able to give you a tax break. Mt. Lebanon residents got an average $15 back. But now we are saying, we gave you that $15 back, we are going to actually take debt on that $15 that we gave you instead of doing the sidewalk program," Miller said.

Raja said approval of the bond was a balancing act.

"We were told by a resident that the school board is going to raise taxes 45 percent. I think it is a balancing act. Going door-to-door, issues for residents is the tax level of Mt. Lebanon. The 2002 base year freeze will change, we don't know how that will change. The amount of tax dollars coming in this economic climate we are faced with flat revenues. Given all that, if you have the money in the operating budget by all means do it. But if you don't have the money, it is a balancing act and you use your best judgment," Raja said.

Miller voted against the bond. Commission President John Daley, Dale Colby, Joe Deluliis and Raja supported the bond. The actual sale of the bonds was the morning before the commissioners voted to approve.