Lafayette County to pay off all outstanding bonds

OXFORD — The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors is planning to pay off all outstanding bond debt and lower property taxes.

The decision was made this past week to spend $10 million of the $30 million gained from the sale of Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi to pay off all outstanding bonds for the county. The outstanding total is $10,731,133.

With the plan to pay off the bonds, there also was a vote at Tuesday’s meeting to reduce property tax millages.

“This is probably the best thing I’ve done in this job,” said Lloyd Oliphant, supervisor and board president. “It truly is.”

Bond attorney Bob Wood said the bond payoff will make Lafayette one of the few debt-free counties in Mississippi.

The original four bonds were for almost $20 million. However, the county has paid about half since 1996 when the first $5 million bond for road and bridge constriction was taken out. Another $8 million bond in 2000 also went toward road construction.