State sells bonds for rail, other projects

JUNEAU — In a bid sale Thursday, the state raised $30 million in funding for the project to bring rail service to Point MacKenzie.

According to a press release from the state Department of Revenue, the sale was for $149 million in bonds, all of which were sold to JP Morgan Securities.

The agreed upon interest rate was .0958 percent, something the state was very happy about.

“We are very pleased with the results of this transaction and it bodes well for our future debt issuances. To have 12 firms bid such aggressive rates shows the strong interest investors continue to have in Alaska,” Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher says in a press release.

That $149 million installment is just one in a planned series of bond offerings that will eventually total $453 million for projects across the state.

“The sales are sized and scheduled as project funding demands are determined. The next sale is currently anticipated to be in the second quarter of 2014. In other words, this sale was designed to cover cash flow needs for the next year,” State Treasurer Angela Rodell says in an email.

The $30 million heading to the rail project will be available for the project to draw on “as needed” Rodell said. In the bonds yet to be sold are a number of Mat-Su projects:

• $10 million to reconstruct Fairview Loop.

• $15 million to reconstruct Knik-Goose Bay Road.

• $13.5 million to extend Bogard Road.

Other projects funded in the first round of bonding include Anchorage’s port expansion project, a port project and road project in Kotzebue, design and construction of a port in Nome, repairs to new Seward Highway bridges, reconstructing the Anchorage end of the Glenn Highway, and rehabilitation work on the Kenai Spur Highway.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.