Cabinet Gives $613M Nod

Florida’s elected Cabinet on Tuesday approved the issuance of up to $613 million of refunding bonds.

The bonds will be sold in separate competitive sales of up to $268 million of State Board of Education lottery revenue refunding bonds, and $345 million of Department of Environmental Protection Florida Forever revenue refunding bonds, according to Ben Watkins, director of the Division of Bond Finance.

The refunding bonds will be sold within existing maturities for debt service savings in coming weeks.

Watkins also reported on $515.5 million of new-money and refunding bonds in three competitive sales completed in the last two months.

The Division of Bond Finance on June 8 issued $144.5 million of public education capital outlay bonds in two series. Of the proceeds, $74.2 million of new-money PECO bonds were sold to Barclays Capital Inc. at a true interest cost of 4.34%.

Another $70.3 million of PECO refunding bonds were sold to JPMorgan for present-value savings of $8.9 million or 11.4% of the principal amount refunded.

The state offered $150.16 million of turnpike revenue bonds on June 23 to Wells Fargo Bank NA at a true interest cost of 4.19%.

On July 13, $220.8 million of PECO refunding bonds were sold to Bank of America Merrill Lynch with a true interest cost of 3.3% for present-value savings of $23.3 million, or 9.95% of the principal amount being refunded.

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