Jackson's second lease-purchase solicitation in two months closes Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., and unlike the first one, this one comes with a shopping list. RFP 94654-092926 asks lenders for an interest rate on $1,991,740.10 in vehicles and equipment, itemized across 36 units in a three-page document posted to the city's bid page.

The list is the story. The largest single line is a broom street sweeper at $385,570. Then seven Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks at $352,503, three compact track loaders at $247,266.75, a knuckle boom loader at $229,593, an asphalt paver at $216,711, three Dodge Durangos at $115,518, and a mini excavator with cab at $73,091.75.

The tail end is small enough to read as a maintenance backlog rather than a fleet replacement: three gooseneck dump trailers at $65,985, three Kubota RTVs at $48,890.76, a Mahindra 1635 compact utility tractor at $47,075, three Gator mowers at $42,296.40, a Nissan Frontier at $31,092, a 2026 Chevrolet Trax at $24,885, and a single 24-inch HD bucket for the excavator at $1,452.14.

The arithmetic works out to an average of $55,326 per unit. Strip out the sweeper, the paver, the loader, and the track loaders, and the remaining 30 units average $28,700 apiece. That is the profile of a public works and parks fleet, not a police or fire purchase.

The financing terms are where the money is. The agreement runs three years, with semi-annual payments in arrears, equal principal and interest, the first payment due six months after funding. The city projects a funding date of Nov. 20, 2026, which puts the first payment in May 2027, inside the next fiscal year's budget.

One sentence in the RFP narrows the field of bidders. "The City of Jackson, Mississippi reasonably expects that it will be non-bank qualified for calendar year 2026," it states. Non-bank qualified means the interest is not exempt from federal income tax for the lender, so the city will pay a taxable-equivalent rate. Banks that price municipal paper on a tax-exempt basis are not the natural buyers here. The city is effectively shopping for an equipment finance company.

That is a cost the city has not disclosed. The RFP asks bidders to supply the rate and a full amortization schedule, but it does not publish an estimate of what the lease will cost over three years. At 6 percent, the total interest would run roughly $188,000. At 9 percent, closer to $287,000. The city will not know which until it opens the envelopes.

This is the second attempt. The city published RFP 94654-081826 on July 30 with bids due Aug. 18, according to the bid page on jacksonms.gov. That solicitation was also for lease-purchase interest rate financing on vehicles and equipment. The new notice was published Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, per the planroom posting on jacksonmsbids.com, and the city's own bid page carries a publish date of Sept. 17.

The city has not said publicly why the first round produced no award, or whether it produced bids at all. The RFP reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, standard language that also gives the city room to rebid a second time without explanation.

There is a timing question worth watching. The city's general fund is built largely on sales tax diversions from the Mississippi Department of Revenue, which paid Jackson $2,612,443 in August, up 9.5 percent from $2,385,899 a year earlier. A three-year lease at roughly $700,000 a year in combined principal and interest would consume about 2.2 percent of one month's diversion, or about 27 percent of a single monthly payment. It is affordable against that revenue line. It is also a fixed claim on it for three budget cycles.

The contact on the specification side is Courtney Bell, the city's finance manager, at 601-960-2005. The bid contact listed on the planroom is Monica Oliver, with the procurement office at procurement@jacksonms.gov. Proposals go to the Municipal Clerk Department at 219 South President Street, or electronically through jacksonmsbids.com.

What's next: bids close Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 3:30 p.m., and the city has not published an opening date or a council vote. Watch for an award item on a City Council agenda in October or early November, because the RFP's own schedule requires a funding date of Nov. 20. If no award appears by mid-November, the likely explanation is a second failed solicitation, and the question to put to Bell and to the administration is what rate the city was quoted and why it walked away.

The larger question is whether this lease is the first of several. The FY 26 equipment list totals 36 units and $1.99 million, and the city has now solicited financing for it twice in eight weeks. If the council approves a lender in October, the same structure is available for every future fleet purchase, which would move Jackson's vehicle replacement off the capital budget and onto a standing line of credit.