Howard County, Maryland $172 Million in General Obligation Bonds

Apr 2, 2018 | Municipal Bonds, Municipal Finance

Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of April 2nd, 2018: Howard County, Maryland – $172 Million

Howard County, Maryland is issuing $172 million in general obligation bonds the week of April 2nd, 2018. The bonds are a competitive issue, consisting of three series. Series A are $131 million in tax-exempt consolidated public improvement project bonds, Series B are $1 million in federally taxable consolidated public improvement project bonds, and Series C are $39 million in tax-exempt metropolitan district project bonds.

The proceeds from the bonds will be used to reimburse the County for the cost of various public improvements, and to repay all or a portion of the County’s outstanding general obligation bond anticipation notes issued in 2017. Security for the bonds is an irrevocable pledge of the full faith and credit, and unlimited taxing power of the County. Details on the purposes, tax-status, security, as well as other matters pertaining to these Howard County, Maryland general obligation bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement, available on MSRB’s EMMA website.



Howard County is part of the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metropolitan Area. As of January 2018, the Baltimore metropolitan area has an unemployment rate of 4.7%, which is 0.6% higher than the U.S. rate for January, and 0.2% higher than the same time in 2017. More Baltimore metro area data can be found here, and similar information is available on every state and metro area in the U.S. in our Employment Database.

Howard County, Maryland

Provided at left (click to expand) is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of Howard County as of 06/30/2017, compared with the 2016-2017 medians for other U.S. counties, 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