Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of 08/07/2017: State of Maryland General Obligation Bonds (Refunding) – $1.3 Billion
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of Maryland. The ‘Old Line State’ is issuing general obligation and general obligation refunding bonds in the amount of $1.3 billion the week of August 07, 2017. These State of Maryland bonds are being issued in two separate competitive series.
Both series are considered part of the Second Series of the State and Local Facilities Loan of 2017. Second Series A is $550 million in general obligation bonds will be deposited in the State and Local Facilities Loan Fund on any project authorized, including projects in public safety, education, utilities, and housing. Second Series B is $793 million in general obligation refunding bonds will be used to refund bonds issued as part of previous State and Local Facilities Loans. Both series are considered tax-exempt. Security for the bonds is a general obligation pledge of the full faith and credit of the State of Maryland.
Further details on the purposes, tax-status, and security, as well as other matters pertaining to these State of Maryland general obligation bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement, MSRB’s EMMA database.
As of June 2017, the State of Maryland has an unemployment rate of 4.2%, which is 0.2% lower than the national rate for June, and 0.3% lower than at the same time in 2016. The chart below shows the changes in the State of Maryland 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 State of Maryland, compared with the medians for U.S. States, as of 6/30/2016, 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.
by Jeffrey L Garceau