April 21, 2008

Trust Plans $35 Million Bond Sale to Refinance 22 Water Infrastructure Loans

TRENTON - The New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust is planning the sale of $35 million in refunding bonds to refinance 22 environmental protection projects. Municipal, county, utilities authorities and private water utilities will save on their infrastructure loan finance charges. The bond sale is set for June 3.

This sale will mark the 13th time the Trust has sold bonds to refinance infrastructure projects in New Jersey . Its low-interest loans have funded 680 projects in New Jersey , totaling $4.3 billion. These projects provide new or upgraded drinking water and wastewater treatment and conveyance pipes, open space preservation, stormwater controls and brownfield cleanups."

The par amount of bonds being refunded is $30,185,000 of Series 1998A and $5,290,000 of Series 1998B. The amount of Refunding Bonds being issued, based on Public Financial Management's latest report, is $29,620,000 of Series A and $5,210,000 of Series B. This number is subject to change, depending on the premium paid by the winning bidders, but will not exceed the par amount of bonds being refunded.

These bonds have not yet been rated by Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings, however, past bonds have all received the agencies' highest possible rating.

Over the past 21 years, the Trust has saved municipalities more than $91 million in refinanced loans. It regularly monitors market conditions to assess the right time to refinance past loans. The savings realized from these refundings are returned to Trust borrowers - a practice not found anywhere else in the finance industry.

The Financing Program's loans, which are 75 and 50 percent below market rates, provide substantial cost savings to municipalities and utility and sewerage authorities. To date, these loans have saved New Jersey taxpayers and ratepayers more than $2 billion in financing costs.

Currently, the Trust is preparing a 2008 Pooled Bond sale to take place this October. At the time of this writing, this sale will help finance approximately 100 environmental projects worth more than $700 million.

The following lists the municipalities that will benefit from the refunding:

City of Cape May
City of New Brunswick
City of Orange Township
City of Trenton
Delanco Township Sewerage Authority
Florence Township
Florence Township
Gloucester County Utilities Authority
Lawrence Township
Middlesex County Improvement Authority
Middlesex Water Company
Millburn Township
Mt. Holly Water Company
Ocean County Utilities Authority
Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners
Pennsville Township
Pine Hill Borough
Somerdale Borough
Somerset Raritan Valley Sewerage Authority
Town of Kearny
Township of North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority
Waldwick Borough