This time of record-high interest rates makes it seem like the worst time to take out a building loan. However, there is a cheaper, but lesser-known, alternative for private schools.
WCRIS has been working for years with the Wisconsin Health & Educational Facilities Authority (WHEFA), a state agency, to encourage schools to use tax-exempt financing when it’s time to build or renovate.
Recently, for example, St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church seized the opportunity for such savings when they built a 32,000-square foot, $4.3 million addition to their school in Oconomowoc.
Help from WHEFA will enable “the school to almost double its enrollment capacity,” said George M. Zaferos, Business Administrator at St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Zaferos also said that the addition will allow, “community residents on the current waiting list to enroll their children in the type of education they desire for their families.”
This tax-exempt financing process has enabled schools like St. Matthew’s Lutheran to operate more effectively by financing its capital expenses at a low-interest rate.
WHEFA provides several hundred Wisconsin nonprofit corporations access to private and public capital markets at lower costs than are available to them in the conventional marketplace. WHEFA does not utilize any State money to fund its operations.
For more information, go here.
