Glendale to use City Hall to help pay debt to NHL
Jun 25, 2013, 2:37 PM | Updated: 2:38 pm
PHOENIX — The Glendale City Council will present the public with an option Tuesday that would see City Hall used as collateral for a loan to pay for debts owed to the National Hockey League.
Glendale Chief Financial Officer Diane Goke said the loan would be for $30 million total.
“We’re putting up City Hall as collateral to pay back the interfund loans that we made for the Coyotes payments in 2011 and 2012,” she said, correcting herself to say “I’m sorry, not Coyotes payments, the payments to the NHL.”
$5 million of the loan would be paid to the NHL. Goke said the rest of the money would go for other things.
“$15 million would pay off the water and sewer fund. We have $5 million that would pay off the technology and vehicle replacement fund. Then we also have a payroll upgrade that we’re doing for $1 million.”
Goke said it not unusual for states and cities to try to use government buildings as a way to generate income.
“The state did it a couple of years ago,” she said. “The cities of Tucson and Scottsdale actually did it back in the 1980s.”
There’s no word yet on who might loan Glendale the money.
The city council also held a closed-door session Tuesday to get legal advice on the arena management deal for the city-owned Jobing.com Arena. The deal has not been finalized, but a city spokesperson said Glendale hopes to release details soon.
The public meeting is at 7 p.m. at Glendale City Hall.
