Sandy listed $112.8 million in long-term obligations at June 30, 2025, down 5 percent
Sandy's FY2025 audited report lists $112,760,737 in long-term obligations, down $5,946,965 from a year earlier. In December 2025, council minutes recorded that Hale Centre Theatre was paying off its bond obligation early.
Continuing story: Auditing Sandy
Sandy City reported total long-term obligations of $112,760,737 at June 30, 2025, in its audited financial report for the fiscal year (FY2025). The report says long-term debt fell $5,946,965, or 5.0 percent, during the year for regularly scheduled debt service payments. [1]
The comparable June 30, 2024 total in the same table is $118,707,702. [1]
What the total includes, June 30, 2025
General obligation bonds: $18,690,000, down from $19,300,000. Revenue bonds: $59,298,000, down from $65,645,000, of which $5,120,000 is in business-type activities. [1]
Other notes payable: $17,197,274. Compensated absences: $8,175,470, up from $7,410,655. A long-term contract payable in business-type activities: $5,532,840. [1]
The table's lease-liability line does not add across its own columns, so it is not broken out here. [1]
The report says Sandy's current debt limitation is $1,960,195,137 and that the city has $18,690,000 in general obligation debt. Its sales tax revenue bonds and transient room tax refunding bonds are rated AAA and its water refunding bonds AA+ by Standard and Poor's. [1]
Two different decreases
The report's financial highlights say total long-term debt decreased by $9,249,296 for regularly scheduled debt service payments. The debt section and its table show a $5,946,965 decrease. The report does not explain the difference. [1]
Hale Centre Theatre, December 2025
At a Dec. 9, 2025 public hearing on the sale of city properties including the theatre and plaza, the minutes record that Hale Centre Theatre was buying the theatre and the adjacent plaza parcel, and that "HCT is paying off the bond obligation early and accelerating their purchase of the theatre and plaza." The council took no action at the hearing. [2]
The December minutes do not give a payoff amount, a sale price or a date. [2]
A later note in the FY2025 report does. Note 22, a subsequent event, says that on Dec. 17, 2025, Hale Center Theater deposited $33,541,587 with the city's trustee to be used toward paying off the Sandy City Sales Tax 2015 bonds. It says the funds were used to pay off all bonds held by Sandy City, that the city released the deed to the structure to the theater's management, and that the long-term lease was dissolved because the building is no longer city property. The note says the payoff affects the largest bonds in the city's debt service fund. [4]
The $33,541,587 is the amount of the trustee deposit as the report describes it. The report does not separate principal from other amounts or give a sale price. [4]
On Dec. 16, 2025, the minutes record that the council adopted the item vacating the public dedication of the plaza next to the theatre, Resolution 25-62C, without recording a tally. [3]
These events came after June 30, 2025, so they are not reflected in the FY2025 balances. [1][2]
The $112.8 million figure is a June 30, 2025 balance of all long-term obligations, including compensated absences, leases and a contract payable, not bonds alone. The December 2025 theatre payoff came after that date and is not reflected in it; the two should not be combined into a current debt figure.
Sources
- Sandy City · FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (Legistar item 26-187)
- Sandy City Council · Dec. 9, 2025 minutes (Legistar)
- Sandy City Council · Dec. 16, 2025 minutes (Legistar)
- Sandy City · FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Note 22: subsequent event
Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.