The town’s fiscal situation may not be that dire, but Finance Director Craig Rudolphy has engaged in the $38 million budget version of reaching under the sofa cushions searching for loose change.

The town has moved on refinancing two of its three bond issues, offering some tax savings to the residents of the Eagle Mountain subdivision and a little extra cash for the town coffers over the next five years.

Rudolphy said they view the refinancing as more of an opportunity to take advantage of rather than a desperate move to save money.

“I felt we had to do whatever we could to save as much money as possible for the town,” Rudolphy said.

Town government itself will not realize any fiscal advantage for refinancing the Eagle Mountain Community Facilities District bond. It applies only to those property owners in the subdivision in the southwest corner of town.

Eagle Mountain residents will see a savings of about $97,000 over the remaining five years of the bond’s life. When viewed overall, that is not much savings to the individual property owners per year, Rudolphy said.

The other bond that was refinanced belongs to the Municipal Property Corporation. That is being repaid with an excise tax, a dedicated portion of the town’s local sales tax.

This amounts to a savings of 3.2 percent over the remaining life of the bond (it will mature in 2020).

Rudolphy said residents in town will not see any tax bill savings from this refinance because of the new Saguaro Boulevard reconstruction bond. In fact, he said property owners can expect to see a higher tax bill.

The town helped the developer create the Eagle Mountain Community Facilities District at the time the subdivision was being developed to help pay the costs of infrastructure.

The tax burden has been exclusively on the residents living in that subdivision and no other town residents.

The MPC bonds were purchased to pay the costs of McDowell Mountain Preserve land acquisition and construction of the Community Center.

Rudolphy said discussion regarding refinancing came up when the town was purchasing the Saguaro bonds. The interest rates were very favorable and staff wondered how that might translate to the other bonds.

The town has additional general obligation bonds on the library construction and additional mountain land. Rudolphy said the town would realize no advantage in refinancing those bonds.

“Our financial policies require a minimum three percent savings to refinance,” he said.

The new rate on the Eagle Mountain bond is a 3.9 percent savings. The town is saving 3.2 percent on the MPC bonds.