CHICAGO — Cook County, Ill.’s plan to issue $332 million of new-money debt advanced last week after a key board committee signed off on the borrowing.
The full board is expected to vote on the measure at one of its two April meetings.
The borrowing sparked some criticism from the four Republican commissioners who sit on the 17-member board. Voting against the measure, they warned that the county is taking on too much taxpayer-supported debt.
Despite the debate — and board President Todd Stroger’s turbulent history of winning approval for bond measures — the board’s finance committee passed the measure along party lines by a 12 to 4 margin.
Chief financial officer Jaye Morgan Williams urged commissioners to support the bond issue, saying it was the best bond market in years.
The $332 million includes $224 million for capital projects and $108 million for equipment. Most of the projects were approved in the county’s $3 billion fiscal 2010 budget.
The committee also agreed to boost Cook’s borrowing cap to $780 million from the previously approved level of $740 million to finance additional projects.
In addition to the $332 million for capital projects, the county is expected to issue roughly $80 million of three-year notes to pay off a 2007 pension obligation.
The government recently issued requests for proposals to underwriters, financial advisors, and bond counsel interested in working on the debt issuances.
It will likely be the last borrowing for the lame-duck Stroger administration. The president lost his re-election bid in the February Democratic primary to long-time Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, who will face Republican candidate Roger Keats in November.
The second-largest county in the U.S., Cook has roughly $3.2 billion in outstanding debt. Its GO debt is rated AA by Standard & Poor’s, Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, and AA-minus by Fitch Ratings.
