The Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority plans to sell $84.7 million of bond anticipation notes and $75 million of revenue anticipation notes on Wednesday.
Assuming the deal goes through, it would end one chapter in a saga that has gone on for more than a year as the authority and Erie County deadlocked over who would sell debt to finance the county’s capital program.
Neither the county nor the authority could sell debt without the other’s consent. The county Legislature authorized the transaction last week. The county plans to place mirror Bans and Rans with the authority so that it will have the option of taking out the debt at a later date.
“We’re very happy at this point to get this done,” said the authority’s executive director, Kenneth Vetter. “Doing the one-year Ban may not be a perfect solution, but it’s a good one and it gives us time to work out a long-term strategy.”
County Executive Chris Collins has said repeatedly that he will not allow the authority to sell bonds on behalf of the county because he doesn’t want to extend its life for decades to match the debt’s maturity. The higher-rated authority argued that it should issue the debt because it could do so more cheaply.
Vetter said the authority expects to save about $500,000 by issuing the debt rather than the county.
Roosevelt and Cross will underwrite the Bans and Rans. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is bond counsel and Capital Markets Advisors LLC is financial adviser.
