Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of 11/18/2017: City of Dallas – General Obligation Bonds – $303 Million
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of Texas. The City of Dallas is issuing general obligation bonds in the amount of $303 million the week of October 16, 2017. These general obligation bonds are being issued as a single negotiated series. The purpose of these bonds is to refund previously issued general obligations in the amount of $27.7 million, issued in 2007, and to finance various capital improvements, including flood protection and storm drainage facilities.
Security for the bonds is as follows: all taxable property in the City is subject to a continuing direct ad valorem tax levied by the City sufficient to provide for payment of interest and principle on the bonds, and must be levied within limits prescribed by law. Pursuant to the Texas Constitution and the City of Dallas’s charter, the ad valorem tax rate may not exceed $2.50 per $100 taxable assessed valuation for all purposes, including general operating expenses and payment of debt service.
Further details on the purposes, tax-status, and security, as well as other matters pertaining to these City of Dallas general obligation bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement, available on MSRB’s EMMA website.
As of September 2017, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX metropolitan area has an unemployment rate of 3.4%, which is 0.7% lower than the national rate for August, and 0.4% lower than at the same time in 2016. The chart below (click to expand) shows the changes in the Dallas metro area, 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 City of Dallas as of 6/30/2016, compared with the medians for other U.S. Cities 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