The Blue Ridge Board of Education and the school district superintendent have the right idea, to use cash reserves to pay down building bond debt. The town of Normal and the Unit 5 school district should do the same thing.

The cash reserves earn only a small amount of interest. Unit 5 saved $13 million on its construction project, according to The Pantagraph. The interest rate on building bonds is five and six times the interest rates that investing in short-term repurchase agreements and CDs, and money markets earn now.

Good money managers don’t ignore the spread between the two rates. And the benefit to taxpayers further justifies the trade of low-earning reserves for high-cost debt.

There’s another good reason to pay down the local debt: State and federal governments are piling on way too much of it for future generations.

Normally, a reasonable amount of debt can be justified for the benefits that will be there for our kids to utilize, such as infrastructure improvements, but to fund deficit spending beyond our means is irresponsible! It’s just indulging ourselves and passing the burden on to the next generation.

Robert Arnold, Normal