The City of Philadelphia Still Owes Money for the 700 Level

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Checks can be made payable to Andrew Kulp at the following address… wait, what? Okay, I’m being told the 700 Level doesn’t refer to us – or more importantly, me – in this case.

What Philadelphia really still owes money for is something that no longer exists: Veterans Stadium.

Seriously. The city is six figures in debt over a building that was demolished in 2004, not to mention an additional mil on subway expansion according to Philly Mag’s blog The Philly Post. Oh, and it’ll be awhile until that’s all paid off. Andrew Thompson has more:

But the wistful can find comfort here: The Vet is still very much alive—on the city’s debt service list.

Nearly 50 years after the initial $25 million dollar bond was approved in 1964, the city is still paying for the construction of a stadium that no longer even exists, making Veterans Stadium one of two of the oldest debts on the books, according to available bond data and interviews with the Controller’s Office. The other debt, also wrapped in the same $162 million loan authorized on the 1964 ballot, is the SEPTA expansion of the El to the Northeast and the Broad Street Line to Pattison—constructed to service the Vet.

The remaining balance on the Vet has been paid down to $183,000, and the city still owes more than $1 million on the subway expansion. Both projects were financed with 30-year bonds, putting them about 20 years behind repayment schedule, but have been refinanced multiple times, most recently in 2012, allowing the city to defer payment. Bond data indicate that the Vet will finally be paid off sometime in 2014, and the subway not until at least 2022.

Doesn’t anybody in government know if you call the credit card company and just ask them, sometimes they’ll lower the interest rate?

Never mind. Like I was saying before, mail those checks to P.O. Box…

>> Guess How Much Money We Still Owe for Building Veterans Stadium [Philly Mag]

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