One of the general government expenditures noted on page 9 of this report is debt service (principal plus interest) on outstanding debt. General long-term debt outstanding increased from $370 million in 1994 to $664.6 million in 1998. Of the $664.6 million in outstanding general long-term debt, $476.9 million (including interest due) was Councilmanic bonds, or debt that can be issued by the City without voter approval. Voter-approved outstanding debt totaled $90.7 million, and "other" debt (notes, contracts, and other liabilities such as compensated absences) totaled $97.0 million.

Most of the increase in outstanding debt over the past five years is the result of increased Councilmanic bonds. From 1994-1998, the City issued $424.7 million in Councilmanic bonds for various capital projects, including reconstructing the Seattle Center Coliseum (now the KeyArena), developing public safety facilities, acquiring Key Tower, constructing a downtown concert hall, developing low-income housing facilities, redeveloping land and infrastructure at Sand Point, supporting the State’s expansion of the Convention Center, improving the transportation infrastructure, and acquiring the Pacific Place Garage. Much of the debt issued in the past five years has come with its own revenues source (e.g., parking fees from the new Pacific Place Garage; revenue from KeyArena), or is expected to offset higher costs that would have been incurred without the purchase (e.g., purchase of Key Tower for City office space instead of rehabilitating existing City buildings).

The current outstanding voter-approved debt is the remaining principal on long-term debt issued in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In 1999, Seattle will issue approximately $100 million of the $196.4 million voter-approved bonds authorized in November 1998 for the "Libraries for All" capital program, to be repaid from excess property taxes.

The debt capacity table below shows the total legal debt capacity for City general purpose and special purpose debt, and remaining legal debt capacity. As can be seen from the table, the area where the City is most constrained from a legal perspective is in its ability to issue additional Councilmanic (non-voted) debt.