{"id":53481,"date":"2020-06-08T14:13:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T20:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-bond-sale-to-pay-for-state-roads-sees-high-demand\/"},"modified":"2020-06-08T20:13:59","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T20:13:59","slug":"colorados-bond-sale-to-pay-for-state-roads-sees-high-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-bond-sale-to-pay-for-state-roads-sees-high-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s bond sale to pay for state roads sees high demand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The state of Colorado received an $111 million premium on a debt issuance of $500 million \u2013 a strong debt sale that will prevent budget cuts for the Colorado Department of Transportation in next year\u2019s state budget.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colorado received an $111 million premium on a debt issuance of $500 million, thanks to strong investor demand for state-issued debt.<\/p>\n

As a result, budget writers say that $100 million in planned cuts to the Colorado Department of Transportation over the next two years \u2013 and some additional cuts likely to come \u2013 will be at least partially offset by an investment market that has largely shrugged off America\u2019s broader economic malaise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be making any more progress (on transportation) than normal \u2013 but we\u2019re not sliding backwards either,\u201d said Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat who serves on the Joint Budget Committee, in an interview.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccertificates of participation\u201d<\/a> \u2013 authorized in 2017\u2019s Senate Bill 267 \u2013 are a form of debt in which the state effectively takes out a mortgage on government-owned buildings in order to fund construction projects. Investors purchase the certificates, much like they would government bonds, with the assurance that the state of Colorado will repay them over time with interest.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers initially authorized $1.88 billion in total certificates to fund transportation projects, issued in four installments.<\/p>\n

The first $500 million sold in September 2018 and likewise brought back an additional premium to the state, selling for $545 million. The second installment was required to go to market before June 30 of this year, and Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young was preparing to issue them in March \u2013 just days before the pandemic caused the market to crash.<\/p>\n

Three months later, the delay appears to have worked in the state\u2019s favor. With a $500 million face value, the certificates sold for $611 million, to be repaid over 20 years at 2.13% interest. The treasurer\u2019s office said $559.8 million will go to CDOT\u2019s transportation project account, and $49 million will go to a construction fund earmarked for rural Colorado. The remaining $1.1 million covered issuance costs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all upside for roads<\/div>\n

But what comes next for state transportation has inspired a mix of hope and despair.<\/p>\n

As proposed, next year\u2019s budget would be the first since the 2018-19 fiscal year in which transportation won\u2019t receive any significant money from the state\u2019s general fund, which is the discretionary pot of tax dollars that pays the bulk of state government operations.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed budget, the CDOT\u2019s cash fund revenue would decrease next year by 9%. The $136 million drop is largely due to the end of scheduled general fund transfers from 2018\u2019s Senate Bill 1. To make matters worse, the proposed spending plan doesn\u2019t account for what could be a precipitous drop in gas tax collections from public health orders efforts that have kept people in their homes and off the roads.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers also plan to delay a 2020 ballot measure that would have asked voters to issue $1.3 billion in transportation bonds until November 2021, the second straight year the referendum has been deferred.<\/p>\n

Zenzinger, the Arvada Democrat who has long pushed for additional transportation funding, lamented that the state failed to raise additional revenue for roads during the decade-long economic expansion that the coronavirus brought to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd now we are so far behind. I look at all the other services we had to cut within our budget \u2013 and people are hurting. I think we missed our moment to be able to ask the voters to raise revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

state of Colorado received an $111 million premium on a debt issuance of $500 million \u2013 a strong debt sale that will prevent budget cuts for the Colorado Department of Transportation in next year\u2019s state budget.Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file Colorado received an $111 million premium on a debt issuance of $500 million, thanks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4639,1724,576,13,28,29,1685],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bonds","tag-budgets-and-budgeting","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-road-work-and-conditions"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53481"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}