Colorado Bonds (Colorado Municipal Bonds)

 

 

Under the Colorado Municipal Bond Supervision Act, it is unlawful for any district to issue unregistered Colorado bonds or for any person to distribute such bonds. All bonds have to be registered with the Securities Commissioner under section 11-59-108 or should be exempt under section 11-59-110. It is also unlawful for any district to refinance bonds without prior approval of the Securities Commissioner.[br]

Colorado Bonds: Types

Some of the Colorado Bonds are:

 

Clean Energy Options Local Improvement District bonds: There are several Boulder County, Colorado’s Clean Energy Options Local Improvement District bonds, such as:

·        the $1.3 million special assessment bonds

·        the series 2009C

·        $1.8 million special assessment bonds

·        taxable series 2009D 

 

Fitch Ratings assigned an ‘A+’ rating and ‘Stable’ rating outlook in October 2009. The rating was based on the strength of Boulder County’s moral obligation pledge. 

 

Public Service Company of Colorado bonds: This electric and natural gas utility for the Denver metro area completed the sale of its $400 million bonds in first week of June, 2009. The company planned to use half of the proceeds of the 10-year bonds to retire $200 million in other bonds. The remaining proceeds were slated to be used for general corporate purposes. These first-mortgage bonds were secured against the assets of the Colorado utility, improving their safety profile. These notes would yield interest bi-annually starting from December 1, 2009.[br]

 

Colorado Public Radio bonds: These bonds that provided $4.7 million for the expansion of the Colorado Public Radio (CPR) network in 2001 were downgraded by all three major bond-rating firms in March 2009. The downgrade was based on CPR’s decision in 2008 to incur costs by adding a FM channel to broadcast news service. This move came at a time when the listeners had rejected the company’s AM channel. Due to the downgrade, the CPR would have to pay a higher interest rate if it restructured its debt and reissued the bonds. 

 

City and County of Denver, Colorado, series 2009C airport system revenue bonds: The series 2009C bonds issued in the first half of November 2009 are variable-rate demand obligations. These bonds were backed by a direct-pay letter of credit (LOC) provided by the JP Morgan Chase Bank, National Association. It was rated ‘AA-/F1+’ by Fitch as of November 2009. 

 

In addition, Fitch Ratings assigned a bank bond rating of ‘A+’ to these bonds on November 3, 2009.