Retail pricing began Tuesday for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's $236 million sale of Series 2014A senior turnpike revenue bonds.
A commission official, citing market volatility, said the agency might combine retail and institutional sales in one day.
Loop Capital Markets is the lead manager.
Moody's Investors Service rates the bonds A1. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rate them A-plus. All have stable outlooks.
The transportation bill that Gov. Tom Corbett signed in November sharply reduced the commission's annual $450 million payment for non-toll road transportation projects, required under the Act 44 bill former Gov. Ed Rendell signed seven years earlier, to $50 million annually after 2022.
Act 44 hinged on federal approval of tolls for Interstate 80, but Washington rejected Pennsylvania's application and the state still had to make the payments.
According to Fitch, the need for an additional $6 billion in senior lien debt to fund the commission's $6.5 million mainline capital plan for fiscal 2014 to 2023 pressures the turnpike, when combined with its expected $3.8 billion in subordinate lien borrowing.
Earlier this month, the commission's chief compliance officer, Dave Gentile, resigned citing personal reasons. His last day will be April 3.
The commission established the office late in 2012 amid revelations of pay-to-play scandals and questionable practices.
In March 2013, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane's office indicted former state Senate Democratic Leader Robert Mellow, five former Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials and employees, and two businessmen in an alleged bid-rigging scheme.
Also among the eight were Mitchell Rubin and Joseph Brimmeier, the former chairman and chief executive, respectively, of the commission.
