Featured Municipal Bond in the Market, Week of 04/17/2017: School District of Miami-Dade County General Obligation School Bonds – $250 Million
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of Florida. The School District of Miami-Dade County is issuing general obligation school bonds in the amount of $250 million the week of April 17, 2017. The bonds consist of a single series of school bonds, issued competitively, in which the bonds are awarded to the bidder offering the lowest interest cost. The bonds the fifth in a series of general obligation bonds expected to be issued by the District, totalling $1.2 billion, for the purposes of modernizing, constructing, acquiring, building, enlarging, furnishing, or otherwise improving school buildings. For example, according to the District’s Capital Improvement Program, their expenditure plans for budget year 2017 involve $22.5 million on Site and Site Improvements, $290.6 million on Buildings, and $514.5 million on Remodeling, among other capital expenditures.
The bonds are tax-exempt general obligations of the School District, secured by the full faith and credit and ad valorem taxing power of the District. Further details on the purposes, security, and other matters pertaining to these general obligation school bonds can the found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.
The Miami-Dade School District covers part of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Miami MSA has an unemployment rate of 4.8% as of February 2017, which is 0.1% higher than the national rate for February, and equal to the same time in 2016. The chart below shows the changes in the Miami MSA, State of Florida, and U.S. unemployment rates for the past ten years. 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 School District of Miami-Dade County, as of 06/30/2016, along with the medians for other U.S. states for 2015-2016, 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.