Bridge Bond Sale Leverages Help for Vermont

Vermont's $10 million bond sale will help it receive an additional $51 million in federal funding for bridge and road projects throughout the state.

State Treasurer Beth Pearce explained in a statement that Vermont typically contributes 20% of project costs to access federal highway dollars, but Federal Emergency Management Agency and other emergency funds require only a 10% state match.

"This timely bond issuance allows us to proceed with 18 critical infrastructure projects throughout Vermont," Pearce said.

The state issued the special obligation transportation infrastructure bonds, backed by the state's motor-fuels transportation infrastructure assessment, in a competitive offering on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley was the winning bidder with a true interest cost of 2.4862%.

Proceeds from the sale, along with federal funding, will go toward replacing and rehabilitating bridges damaged by Tropical Storm Irene, as well as other transportation projects that are necessary following the storm.

Ahead of the sale, Standard & Poor's upgraded the bonds to AA-plus from AA.

"This rating upgrade helped us to receive a large number of bids on our competitive bond sale, which in turn helped us to secure record-low interest rates," Pearce said.

Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings maintained their respective ratings of Aa2 and AA.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Transportation industry Vermont
MORE FROM BOND BUYER