How Do Municipal Advisors Help Support Bond Programs?
/A municipal advisor provides advice to school and community college districts on their financing options and on the issuance of its debt.
Supporting a bond program begins with the program development and planning. Municipal advisors typically aid school and community college districts with the development of their bond programs by assisting with determining financing needs, evaluating the feasibility of issuing bonds, and recommending the bond program sizes based on analyses of financing constraints. Municipal advisors will analyze a district’s assessed value, bonding capacity, and provide interest rate assumptions when determining a feasible general obligation bond program size.
Once the bond program has been created and approved by a district’s voters, a municipal advisor continues to support the bond program by advising on the issuance of general obligation bonds. Through the issuance process, a municipal advisor will advise on the optimal structure of the bonds and will closely monitor market conditions to provide favorable timing for the sale of a district’s bonds with the goal of achieving a lower overall borrowing cost. This generally helps districts retain flexibility for future issuances. The goal is for districts to be able to access their general obligation bond authorization in a timely manner while maintaining the tax rate estimate provided to voters.
Municipal advisors provide specialized knowledge to school and community college districts to support their bond programs. By providing strategic advice and quantitative analysis, advisors can assist with the creation and completion of successful bond programs.