Featured Municipal Bond in the Market, Week of 08/08/2016: Pennsylvania
This week’s featured bond comes from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Keystone State is scheduled to issue $1.2 billion in competitive general obligation bonds the week of August 08, 2016. These bonds are scheduled to be issues as a single series, Second Series of 2016. The proceeds are to be used for capital projects; $750 million will be allocated to the Department of General Services for construction and rehabilitation of public buildings, $275 million are to be allocated to the Office of the Budget to fund redevelopment assistance projects, and $175 million will be allocated to the Department of Transportation for transportation assistance projects. The bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the Commonwealth. These details and more on purposes, security, and other matters can the found in the official statement, provided by MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA). Pennsylvania currently has an unemployment rate of 5.5% as of June 2016, unchanged from the previous rate in May. Connecticut’s unemployment rate is 0.6% higher than the national rate of 4.9%.
Provided at left is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the State of Pennsylvania, along with the state medians, courtesy of Merritt Research Services, LLC. Merritt has many of the sector medians publicly available and regularly updated on their Benchmark Central page. (Merritt believes the data to be reliable but does not make any representations as to its accuracy or completeness). In addition to the Merritt information related to the featured bond, more information can be found on our municipal bond calendar, city, state, and county pages, and our employment database. These facts and numbers are for informational purposes, and should not be considered an official disclosure for potential investors. Investors should consult the official statement. None of the information provided should be construed as a recommendation by MuniNet Guide, MuniNet LLC, Merritt Research Services LLC, or any of their employees. Information and analysis is for informational purposes only.