Refinancing

Key facts

• 2024 deal: $17.3 million in new bonds plus $24.3 million in cash¹
• What it paid off: the last of the 2014D growing loans²
• District’s reported savings, 2024 deal: about $8 million in total, or $3.4 million in today’s dollars³
• 2026A deal: $174.8 million in bonds, part new money and part refinancing⁴
• Advisor’s estimate before the 2026A sale: about $3.1 million saved in today’s dollars⁵

In short

Refinancing means paying off an old loan with a new, cheaper one. The district did this in 2024 and again in 2026. It says the 2024 deal saved about 8 million dollars in total.³ That figure already counts the cash the district put in.⁶ But the money advisor’s big 2021 savings totals do not say whether the cash was subtracted.⁷

Why it matters to your tax bill: lower interest can mean a lower debt tax later. That is true only if the savings are real after counting the cash used.

Related: debt · early payoffs · growing loans · bond ratings

Refinancing is when you take a new loan to pay off an old one. People do this with a home loan when rates drop. The district does it with bonds. The bond papers call it “refunding.”

The goal is to pay less. A new loan can have a lower rate. It can also replace a loan that grows each year.

The 2024 deal

In August 2024, the board voted 7–0 to sell refunding bonds.⁸ They were sold in the fall.¹

The deal had three parts:

• $17.3 million in new bonds.¹
• $2.1 million extra that buyers paid for those bonds.¹
• $24.3 million of the district’s own cash.¹

Together that is about $43.7 million. About $43.4 million of it went into a locked account.¹ That account paid off the last of the 2014D growing loans in January 2025.²

Here is the trade, in round numbers:

	Amount
What the old loans would have cost at the end	$54.6 million
Cash the district put in	$24.3 million
What the new bonds will cost to repay	$22.3 million

Sources: notes 1, 3 and 7.

The district reports about $8 million in total savings.³ That number already subtracts the $24.3 million of cash, so the deal passes the after-cash test.⁶ In today’s dollars, it reports $3.4 million.³ Money in the future is worth less than money now. So the second number is smaller.

How much has refinancing saved?

In 2021 the money advisor reported savings from 11 refinancings since 2015. It listed $225.5 million in today’s dollars and $629.9 million in total payments. One deal (2016A) was $336.6 million of the total figure.⁷ The report does not state whether those totals are net of the district’s own cash put in (for example, $9 million in 2020). In another place the same advisor showed 2020 savings both ways: $29.4 million before cash, $20.4 million after.⁷ The report does not say which way its headline numbers were counted.

The 2023A deal. Buyers paid $19.5 million of premium on $15.8 million of bonds. That is explained by the deal’s capital appreciation bonds (CABs), whose value grows over time and is counted as premium.⁹ It swapped about $36.6 million of older growing-value CABs for about $20.0 million of new ones, so the district’s CAB load went down overall.⁹ No district cash was used. The audit reports savings of $1.46 million.⁹

The 2026A deal

In May 2026, the board voted 5–1 to allow a new bond sale.¹⁰ The bonds were priced in August 2026.⁴ The sale was $174.8 million, plus $18.0 million extra paid by buyers.⁴

It did two jobs:

• $100 million went to building projects.⁴
• $91.3 million went into a locked account to pay off parts of the 2016A and 2017A bonds. The bond document set Sept. 28, 2026 as the payoff date.¹¹

Before the sale, the money advisor gave an estimate. It said refinancing about $76 million of old bonds would save about $3.1 million in today’s dollars.⁵ The advisor also said it would not stretch out the payments.⁵ That was an estimate. The real savings depended on rates on sale day.⁵

The other side

• Refinancing can save money when rates fall. The district’s audit reports savings from the 2024 deal.³
• The board voted on each deal before it was sold.⁸¹⁰

Questions to ask

• Will the district post the sale report for each recent bond sale?
• How does the district check the savings it reports for each refinancing?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: We took internal document numbers out of the source notes.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We made the source link names plainer.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We re-checked every figure against the saved bond documents, audits and board packets. All figures matched. We now give the payoff date for the 2016A and 2017A bonds as the date the bond document set. We removed two hedges.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Rewrote the questions to ask so each is open, neutral and addressed to the public body.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We re-checked the figures against the official statements. We tied each other-side point to a source.

What you can do or watch next

• Watch for new refinancing votes on board agendas and the savings reported after each sale.
• See bond ratings, since a lower grade would make refinancing cost more.

What we still don’t know

• We have not seen the sale reports for each recent bond sale, so we can’t list every rate and every loan paid off.

Footnotes

1. Leander ISD, Official Statement, $17,310,000 Unlimited Tax Refunding Bonds, Series 2024, dated Sept. 24, 2024, delivered about Oct. 17, 2024. “Sources and Uses of Funds,” page 3: par $17,310,000; premium $2,101,755; issuer contribution $24,285,000; deposit to escrow $43,439,419.25. EMMA. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Same official statement, Schedule I: Series 2014D premium capital appreciation bonds maturing 2027–2032, redeemed Jan. 14, 2025. Leander ISD, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 2025, letter of transmittal: “all remaining 2014D CABs were eliminated.” ↩ ↩²

3. Leander ISD, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report 2025, letter of transmittal (PDF page 14): “net present value savings of $3.4 million, 7.8% NPV, and gross cash flow savings of $7.99 million.” Note 6, page 45: savings of $3,404,206; debt service of the refunded bonds “totaled $30,265,000 compared to $22,266,192.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Leander ISD, Official Statement, $174,758,257.40 Unlimited Tax School Building and Refunding Bonds, Series 2026A, dated Aug. 5, 2026, “Sources and Uses of Funds”: premium $18,038,581.40; construction fund $100,000,000.00; escrow fund $91,250,148.17. Filed on EMMA. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. PFM slide in the board packet, May 7, 2026, page 210: “a refunding of ~$76M of 2016A and 2017 bonds currently generates approximately $3.1M or 3.9% NPV savings,” “No extension of debt payments,” and “Actual savings will be subject to market conditions at time of pricing.” The order required at least 3.0% savings. Packet page 210. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Our math. $30,265,000 (note 3) plus the $24,285,000 cash (note 1) is $54,550,000. This matches our sum of the maturity values of the 2014D pieces listed in Schedule I. The district’s $7.99 million is $30,265,000 minus $22,266,192. Because $30,265,000 already leaves out the cash, the $7.99 million is net of the $24.3 million of cash ($54.55M − $22.27M − $24.29M). ↩ ↩²

7. PFM, Debt Progress Report, June 10, 2021, Figure 3 and 2020 scenario page. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Board minutes, Aug. 8, 2024: order authorizing the Series 2024 refunding bonds, 7–0. Minutes. ↩ ↩²

9. Leander ISD ACFR FY2024, Note 6 (CAB principal $1,700,934; accreted value $20,027,544 at June 30, 2024); 2023 parameter order and PFM June 8, 2023 slides; 2023A official statement. ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Board minutes, May 7, 2026: order authorizing the Series 2026A bonds, 5–1. Minutes. ↩ ↩²

11. Series 2026A official statement, Schedule I: Series 2016A ($70,000,000 term bond due 2049 and six capital appreciation bonds due 2034–2039) and Series 2017A ($8,395,000 due 2027, $675,000 due 2029, $420,000 due 2030). “Redemption Date: September 28, 2026.” ↩