Featured Municipal Bond in the Market, Week of 02/27/2017: Baltimore County General Obligation Bonds – $199 Million
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of Maryland. The issued bonds are Baltimore County general obligation bonds in the amount of $199 million, the week of February 27, 2017. These general obligations are to be issued as a two tax-exempt series. One series is $99 million in County Metropolitan District Bonds; these bonds will be used primarily to pay Metropolitan District Commercial Paper Bond Anticipation Notes. These notes in turn were expended for financing and/or refinancing of the design, construction, purchase, or acquisition of the water supply, sewerage, and drainage systems. The second series is $100 million in County Consolidated Public Improvement Bonds, for payment of Consolidated Public Improvement Bond Anticipation Notes, which have been used for the following purposes:
The bonds are general obligations of Baltimore County, of which the full faith and credit, as well as unlimited taxing power, are irrevocably pledged. Further details on the purposes, security, and other matters pertaining to these Baltimore County general obligation bonds can the found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.
Baltimore County makes up a significant part of the Baltimore–Columbia–Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of December 2016, the Baltimore MSA had an unemployment rate of 4.0%, which is 1.4% lower than one year ago, and 0.7% lower than the national rate of 4.7% as of December 2016. The chart below shows the ten-year unemployment rate trend line for the U.S., State of Maryland, and the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson MSA. MuniNet provides this data and more, easily accessible, for all 50 states and each Metropolitan Statistical Area in the country in our Employment Database.
Provided at left is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the Baltimore County, MD, as of 06/30/2015, along with the medians for other U.S. counties for 2014-2015, 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.