FLORIDA: Solid Refunding

Orange County officials plan to issue about $40 million of solid-waste revenue refunding bonds and use cash on hand to refinance all of the solid-waste department's approximately $56 million in outstanding debt, said Fred Winterkamp, county manager of fiscal and business services.

May 15 is the targeted date for the competitive transaction. The bonds are expected to be insured, Winterkamp said.

"We will buy down the debt with a $13 million cash defeasance and issue around $40 million in new bonds," he said on Monday. He said that the county is authorized to sell up to $50 million and that discussions with rating agencies and insurers were just beginning.

The solid-waste system of the county is a fee-based enterprise fund. There are no current plans to sell debt in the future.

"The county hopes to take a secondary role to private enterprises in the central Florida solid waste market to conserve the finite county landfill capacity for future years," Winterkamp said.

William R. Hough & Co. is the financial adviser on the upcoming deal. Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson is disclosure counsel and Bryant, Miller and Olive is bond counsel.