Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of 09/11/2017: State of Louisiana General Obligation Bonds – $303 Million
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of Louisiana. The State of Louisiana is issuing general obligation bonds in the amount of $303 million the week of September 11, 2017. These general obligation bonds are being issued as a single, tax-exempt series. The proceeds from these general obligation bonds are set to be distributed as follows:
- Education – $68 million
- Environment – $9.9 million
- Health and Hospitals – $16.4 million
- Public Safety – $5.8 million
- Transportation – $106.7 million
- Utilities – $14.3 million
- Economic Development – $14.7 million
- General Government – $66.5 million
- Quality of Life – $37.7 million
Security for the bonds is an irrevocable pledge of the full faith and credit of the State of Louisiana. Further details on the purposes, tax-status, and security, as well as other matters pertaining to these University of Texas Board of Regents revenue bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.
As of July 2017, the State of Louisiana has an unemployment rate of 5.6%, which is 1.0% higher than the national rate for July, and 0.8% lower than at the same time in 2016. The chart below (click to expand) shows the changes in the State of Texas 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 the State of Louisiana as of 08/31/2016, 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