N.C. Taxpayers Saved over $100M in Debt With Second Round of Bond Refunding

State Treasurer Brad Briner announced more transactions from NCDST which will save taxpayers a total of $160 million. Today, the Department refunded or purchased by tender older General Obligation bonds which were issued for numerous capital projects around the state. This comes after other refunding bonds were sold last week for multimillion-dollar savings.

"We are charting a new course on how to keep state debt as low as possible. North Carolina taxpayers expect, and deserve, to have their money spent in the most prudent way possible," said Treasurer Briner. "This effort led by our State and Local Government Finance Division team is a great example of how small, well planned out steps can lead to big savings for our state."

In a first of its kind transaction in North Carolina, the state issued a bond tender. This means the state made a public invitation to bondholders to sell certain bonds back to us. Due to market changes since those original bonds were issued, the state was able to buy or refund them for savings. This was the first bond tender transaction for the state and was the first of any government in North Carolina.

The state also successfully sold $410.1 million of General Obligation Refunding Bonds with a true interest cost of 2.68% through an underwriting group led by Bank of America. The bonds previously were being held at 2.89%.

"I'm very pleased with the results of this transaction, letting us take advantage of lower interest rates to save taxpayer money," said Denise Canada, Deputy Treasurer of the State and Local Government Finance Division. "Our department's debt management team was joined by staff from many state agencies across North Carolina to help bring this deal to market on an expedited basis, and I'm grateful for their efforts."

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