Erie County Agency Selling $103M Of Bans Following Agreement

The Erie County, N.Y., Fiscal Stability Authority plans to market $103.5 million of bond anticipation notes today following an agreement last month that appears to have ended years of acrimony between Erie County and the authority.

The Bans will be sold through negotiation. They will finance completion of projects approved in 2007 and 2008, and pending projects in 2009. Neither the authority nor the county can borrow without the consent of the other and a long-standing fight over which should sell long- and short-term debt has led to the delay of capital projects.

County Executive Chris Collins announced last month that he had reached an agreement whereby the authority would sell Bans. The authority is currently in "control" status, meaning that it has the authority to block county debt sales.

Should the authority move to advisory status or if New York State removes the authority's ability to borrow, then Erie County would fix out the Bans with long term bonds in 12 months. If neither of those events happens, the authority will roll the notes over.

Fitch Ratings assigns its F1-plus rating to the deal and Moody's Investors Service rates the notes MIG-1. The Bans are secured by county sales tax and state aid.

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