The City of Junction City is continuing to make progress in paying its substantial debt.

In 2015 the City was able to pay off approximately $9 million in debt services according to Allen Dinkel, City Manager.

“We started the year in about $135 million in debt, we’re going to end the year in about $126 million in debt, so we’ve brought it down quite a bit,” said Dinkel.

The majority of the debt is in the form of general obligation bonds, and are setup to be paid of on a certain schedule, which the City has been able to maintain.

Dinkel went on to explain that the City’s budget includes a mill levy of roughly 47 mills, of which 20 of those mills go directly to paying off the City’s debt,”which put’s a constraint on everything else, because that’s money you don’t have then to put into streets, curb and gutters, sidewalks and all of the other issues you have to have.”

In order to maintain the city’s infrastructure with less money Dinkel continues to work closely with the City’s department heads, commission and community to find the perfect balance within the funds available.