Featured Municipal Bond Issue, Week of April 23rd, 2018: State of Illinois GO Bonds – $500 Million


The State of Illinois is issuing general obligation bonds in the amount of $500 million the week of April 23rd, 2018. The bonds are broken up into two series. Series 2018A is $450 million in proceeds that will be used to finance general capital projects under the State’s Capital Program, and Series 2018B is $50 million in proceeds that will be used to finance information technology projects. The bonds are a competitive issue, and the Notice of Sale indicates that bids will be received on Wednesday, April 25th until 10:00 a.m. Central Daylight Savings Time (CDST) for the Series 2018A bonds, and 10:30 a.m. CDST for the Series 2018B bonds.

Security for the bonds is a general obligation pledge of the full faith and credit of the State of Illinois. Details on the purposes, tax-status, security, as well as other matters pertaining to these State of Illinois GO Bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement and notice of sale, available on MuniOS.




As of March 2018, the State of Illinois has an unemployment rate of 4.4%, which is 0.3% higher than the U.S. rate in March, and 0.6% lower than the same time in 2017, as can be seen in the chart below. Illinois had a positive but not dynamic 0.7% growth in total employment in 2017. However, four sectors saw growth of over 2%: Construction (2.2%), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (2.2%), Wholesale Trade (2.5%), and Manufacturing (2.6%)

You can find 10-year employment and labor force trends for all 50 states and each Metropolitan Statistical Area in the U.S. in our Employment Database, and more labor sector growth and compensation data on our Job Market page.

Municipal Bonds


State of Illinois GO Bonds

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