Featured Municipal Bond in the Market, Week of 03/06/2017: State of California General Obligation Bonds – $2.4 Billion

This week’s featured bond comes from the State of California. California General Obligation bonds are being issued in the amount of $2.4 billion the week of March 06, 2017. These bonds are to be issued as a two tax-exempt series. One series is $500 million in general obligation construction bonds, used to pay certain outstanding general obligation commercial payment notes. The second series is $1.9 billion in general obligation refunding bonds, which will be used to current or advance refund certain outstanding general obligation bonds for debt service savings.

The bonds are general obligations of State of California, of which the full faith and credit is irrevocably pledged. The pledge of full faith and credit does not create a lien on any particular moneys or assets of the State. However, the only provision of the State Constitution that creates a higher priority for any State fiscal obligation is a provision directing that from all state revenues there will first be set apart monies for the support of the public school system and public institutions of higher education. Further details on the purposes, security, and other matters pertaining to these California general obligation bonds can the found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.

As of December 2016, the State of California had an unemployment rate of 5.0%, which is 0.7% lower than one year ago, and 0.3% higher 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. and the State of California. MuniNet provides this data and more, easily accessible, for all 50 states and each Metropolitan Statistical Area in the country, in our Employment Database.


California general obligation bondsProvided at left is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the State of California, as of 06/30/2015, along with the medians for other U.S. States for 2014-2015, courtesy of Merritt Research Services, LLC. According to this issue’s preliminary official statement, the State’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ending 06/30/2016 is expected towards the end of March 2017. 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.