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ChatGPTClaudePerplexitySummary City debt · Part 3
$15.6 million of Amarillo's 2020 smart-meter borrowing still unspent
Amarillo Ledger ·
A plain-language summary of records on this site. Every figure is on the linked pages, with its source.
In 2020 the City borrowed $28.5 million from the state to put smart meters on every home. Five years later, $15.6 million of it still hadn't been spent, according to the City's own debt schedule for Sept. 30, 2025.
Those are the same meters at the center of this year's billing mess. The installation contract grew to $28.8 million through four change orders. The billing review the council paid for didn't test a single meter. And customers are repaying every dollar of those bonds through their water and sewer rates.
It isn't the only borrowed money sitting idle. The schedules show $131.9 million in unspent bond proceeds as of Sept. 30, 2025. That includes all $38.1 million of the 2024 drainage bonds and all $19.3 million of the 2024 water and sewer bonds.
The schedules show what's unspent, not why. Those are fair questions to ask the council: what is each balance waiting on, and when will it be spent?
Every bond and its unspent balance: amarilloledger.com/debt
