BGJWSC Commission Approves Refinancing of Existing Bond
At a special called meeting held on November 29, 2017 the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission unanimously approved a refinancing of its outstanding revenue bonds issued in June of 2010.
By taking advantage of lower interest rates and removing a requirement to hold cash in a reserve fund, the total outstanding debt was reduced by $1.1 million dollars and the total interest decreased by $6.4 million dollars. The total resulting savings for the refinance is $7.5 million dollars.
In early 2017, JWSC had begun planning to refinance existing 2010 bonds and to secure new bond debt for critical SPLOST project completion needs as well as for wastewater plant improvements. To that end the JWSC issued an RFP for financial advisors to guide the JWSC through bonding efforts. Davenport & Company were selected.
Refunding of the 2010 bonds had been planned for the spring of 2018 in conjunction with issuing additional bonds. However, in mid-November, Davenport & Company notified the JWSC that the pending tax reform bills in Congress would likely eliminate any savings from refunding after December 31, 2017.The JWSC, staff, financial/bond advisors and bond council worked together and were able to quickly complete the refunding to take advantage of the savings resulting from lower interest rates.
Davenport, in conjunction with JWSC, issued an RFP for refunding the existing 2010 bonds. Eight financial institutions provided refinance offers. Sterling National provided the best proposal which has been acted on. Because of the strong governance by the JWSC Board of Commissioners, proactive management, and the financial strength of the JWSC, the requirement of maintaining a cash trust account or reserve requirement of $3.8 million dollars was removed in the refunding. This allows the JWSC to utilize those funds and the annual interest savings productively to fund necessary capital repairs and replacements to the water and sewer systems.
The public meeting in which the decision was made by the commission can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEUjSFxP0xw&feature=youtu.be&t=4