The economy has struggled of late and many residents are striving daily to make ends meet, but city leaders haven’t shied away from incurring new debt.

In the past few months, officials have announced plans to spend $12 million to reroute Manson Pike at Fortress Boulevard and Gresham Lane, $950,000 to repair Leaf Avenue’s stormwater drainage and $4 million to repair Maney Avenue drainage and upgrade the streetscape.

City Council members have also approved $3.5 million to renovate SportsCom pools with slides and other needed improvements.

The city has managed its loan and interest payments without having to raise property taxes for 14 consecutive years, thanks to increasing sales tax revenues from burgeoning shopping centers like The Avenue Murfreesboro, The Oaks and Stones River Mall. Additionally, the city’s seen a spike in property taxes from new residential development.

But when roughly 25 percent of the city’s annual $97 million budget already goes toward retiring $203.1 million in debt service, some wonder if the latest improvements are too many, too costly and too soon, given the state of the economy.

Candidates in the upcoming city council and mayoral elections had plenty to say about the issue. Following are their thoughts on the city’s growing debt (presented in reverse alphabetical order):

Doug Young, incumbent: “Protecting neighborhoods and streets are a top priority for the city. a good example of this is the drainage project in the Leaf Avenue area, the Maney Avenue drainage and street project and the improvements to the SportsCom pool. a major road project at the Manson Pike and Gresham Lane area will help relieve traffic congestion on the west side of town. we must take care of our present infrastructure, while always planning for the future.”

Brian Vaughan: “We should seriously consider why we are in debt. Again I will go back to the idea of a comprehensive plan. Debt is a serious issue. And you can’t just meet once, approve the debt note and move on. we need to find why we have the debt and come up with an aggressive plan to remove it. There are reasons for debt, few good, most bad, but many people don’t understand the consequences to debt.

City debt sparks concerns