What started as a projected savings of around $925,000 ballooned to more than $1 million on January 29, as Newtown refunded or refinanced 16 of its general obligation bonds. According to documentation provided by Newtown Finance Director Robert Tait, the total savings generated to offset debt service costs for local taxpayers is $1,013,258.22 to be precise.

Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze said the latest refunding windfall is the result of many volunteers and government officials pulling together to create, enhance, and stick to well-documented financial policies and practices in recent years, which also yielded the community its first AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s in 2014.

That hike in the S&P bond rating helped increase potential savings on this bond refunding by more than $150,000, according to the finance board chairman.

“This is the result of a lot of hard work and time, and it’s paying dividends to every single taxpayer,” Mr Kortze said. “This is not just one segment of our taxpayers receiving a benefit.”

In the budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, the Board of Selectmen are requesting debt service in the amount of $10,110,702, a $232,292 reduction to the current year’s debt costs. Besides applied savings from the most recent refunding, there is also no planned bonding for any projects in the 2015-16 budget cycle.

All debt service for town and school capital projects resides within the selectmen’s budget — no debt service is included in the school district’s annual spending plan.

This year, taxpayers are paying $10,342,994 in combined bonding principal and interest. And at the end of this fiscal year, Newtown will be carrying $65,977,000 in capital bonding.

Now the finance director, with the approval of the Board of Finance, will distribute those savings across several fiscal cycles to help maintain the town’s self-imposed nine percent debt cap.

“This will help keep that debt service budget flat over the next five years,” Mr Tait said. “We were already planning to keep it flat, but now it will be flat and lower.”

The ability to keep the debt cap level while still funding several robust capital projects in the coming five years can happen because the 2015/16 fiscal cycle will see a number of existing bond issues retired — essentially paid off — significantly reducing Newtown’s outstanding debt load.

This was an occurrence finance officials and town leaders have been anticipating since 2009.

“There was already a $2.5 million drop in debt from retiring bonds in 2015/16,” Mr Tait said. “And we’ll be planning on paying off another $2 million in bonds that year as well.

Mr Kortze said it would be logical for taxpayers to think that if the town is saving more, it is spending more.

“But the fact is, we are borrowing less as an overall percentage of the budget,” Mr Kortze said.