Oregon Bonds (Oregon Municipal Bonds)

By: EconomyWatch Content   Date: 5 November 2009

About The Author

EconomyWatch Content

Follow The Money

EconomyWatch, Content Team

 

  • Dot Div
  •      

Oregon bonds or Oregon municipal bonds can be short-term or long-term investments, which are fundamentally loans extended to the State of Oregon for financing its projects. These are a fairly secure investment alternative and they offer decent returns.

Oregon Bonds: Types

The State of Oregon issues the following bonds for financing its projects:

 

General Obligation (GO) Bond: GO bonds are completely backed by the State of Oregon. These bonds are issued for funding a wide range of tasks, such as:

  • constructing college and university infrastructure
  • financing small-scale energy projects
  • funding veteran's mortgages

 

Certificate of Participation (COP) Bond: These are issued for financing essential public improvements, such as:

  • state prisons
  • office buildings
  • state universities

 

However, unlike GO bonds, COPs are not completely backed by the credit of the State of Oregon. The repayment on COPs is subject to an annual appropriation by the Oregon Legislature.

 

Revenue Bond: These are long-term borrowings by State agencies for financing self-supporting State projects and programs, such as:

  • building bridges
  • highway construction

 

Even revenue bonds are not backed by the State of Oregon's full faith and credit.

 

Oregon Municipal Bonds: Administration

 

The Oregon bond issue is assisted by the Municipal Debt Advisory Commission (MDAC). This commission offers technical support to local and State agencies for improving the bond market in Oregon.

 

Some functions undertaken by the MDAC include:

 

  • Establishing agreements for the exchange of interest rates.
  • Providing Oregon bond calendar. It comprises a schedule of upcoming local and state details about sales. This helps to reduce the scheduling conflicts between the local and State agencies, which impacts the marketability of the bond issue.
  • Creating the Oregon bond index. This is a summary of the Oregon municipal bond interest rates.
  • Present Oregon bond manual, which is a handbook of several bond issue rules and laws.

Oregon Bonds: Taxability

The Oregon municipal bonds are tax-exempt, which implies that the interest accumulated by an Oregon investor on the bond is free from the Oregon personal income taxes and federal income taxes. However, while all Oregon bonds are exempted from Oregon personal income tax, not all are barred from the federal income tax. In fact, Oregon bonds that qualify for federal tax exemption are clearly specified in the official documents as ‘taxable’ bonds.

 


  • Dot Div
  •      

Most Popular in Municipal

Related Links
blog comments powered by Disqus