Ask and you shall receive — an aphorism that rings true for Johnson County.

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors will receive a series of local loans. There are three agreements, all of which are general obligation bonds. The first bond is for $3.7 million, the second for $3.94 million, and the third for $6.3 million.

Johnson County Treasurer Tom Kriz negotiated the agreement.

“Borrowing is approved in the county’s current budget from March of last year,” Kriz said. “The bonds are split into three different series because some are long-term, and some are short-term.”

The loan agreement states these bonds will be used for the purpose of funding various county insurance programs, purchasing equipment and improving county buildings, acquiring equipment and vehicles for the county sheriff and ambulance agency.

The supervisors agreed the loans are in the best interest for the county.

“We wouldn’t do this, but we have so much property in [tax-increment financing] that we are unable to tax for anything except debt,” Supervisor Rod Sullivan said. “By borrowing against this, we are actually able to save people quite a bit of money in property taxes. After all of this borrowing, our total amount of debt will be lowering, which is hard to explain to people.”

Kriz reaffirmed this, explaining that taxpayers benefit from this unique financial scenario.

“By borrowing money, debt service is accessible to all taxing areas, so it reduces the total cost for the homeowner,” Kriz said. “I use the scenario that if five people went out to eat, and the bill was $100, everyone would pay $20.”

This system of borrowing would not be possible without the help of local banks being open to negotiable interest rates. The agreement’s interest rates are very low, enabling the county to repay the money. The county waits until the end of the year to ensure these lower interest rates as well.

“If we were doing this on an open market, the interest rates would be too high,” Supervisor Janelle Rettig said. “We are one of the few counties it works for. As long as the interest rates are this low, it helps the taxpayers and it works out.”

The first two bonds have an interest rate of 0.3 percent and have durations of four months. They are to be paid back in April. The third will last for two and a half years with a graduated interest rate, starting at 0.4 percent.