Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of 08/28/2017: State of California General Obligation Bonds – $2.5 Billion
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of California. The State of California is issuing general obligation bonds in the amount of $2.5 billion the week of August 28, 2017. These California general obligation bonds are being issued in two negotiated series. The first series are $800 million in various purpose general obligation bonds, and the second series is $1.7 billion in various purpose refunding bonds. The various purpose bonds are being used as construction bonds, to fund certain projects, or pay notes previously issued to pay for projects. The refunding bonds are to be used to refund general obligation bonds previously issued in 2007 and 2008.
Security for the bonds is a general pledge of the full faith and credit of the State of California. The only provision of the State Constitution that creates a higher priority for any State fiscal obligation is provision directing that from all State revenues there will first be set apart funds for the support of the public school system and public institutions of higher education. Further details on the purposes, tax-status, and security, as well as other matters pertaining to these California general obligation bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.
As of July 2017, the State of California has an unemployment rate of 5.4%, which is 1.1% higher than the national rate for July, and 0.4% lower than at the same time in 2016. The chart below (click to expand) shows the changes in the State of California 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 (click to expand) is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of State of California as of 6/30/2016, compared 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.
by Jeffrey L Garceau