July 18, 2017

MAYOR RILLING ANNOUNCES THE CITY OF NORWALK’S SALE OF $35.0 MILLION IN BONDS TO FINANCE CAPITAL PROJECTS AT A RATE OF 2.28%

Mayor Harry Rilling announced today that the city successfully completed the sale of $35.0 million of general obligation bonds to finance the city’s capital projects. The projects being financed with these bonds include $20.9 million for city capital projects including road reconstruction and paving; $8.5 million for Board of Education capital projects including school construction and district technology; and $5.6 million for urban renewal and redevelopment projects.

The method of sale was competitive with bids being accepted electronically via the PARITY online bidding service. The True Interest Cost (TIC) for the winning bidder was 2.281396% submitted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The city received a total of nine bids, with TICs ranging from 2.281396% to 2.419159%. As a point of reference, three other Fairfield County municipalities have issued general obligation bonds in as many weeks and all had achieved a TIC hovering around 2.7%.

Norwalk’s debt remains highly attractive to municipal bond investors due to Norwalk’s superior bond rating and strong reputation in the market. The three major credit rating agencies all reaffirmed their “triple A” bond ratings of Norwalk earlier this month in advance of today’s sale. The city estimates that selling these bonds with a “triple A” rating rather than a “double A” rating will generate interest savings of approximately $781,000 to Norwalk taxpayers over the life of the issue.