Illinois issued $600 million in sales-tax backed municipal bonds yesterday. The state’s motto is “State Sovereignty, National Union”. With deals like this piling up it’s going to take a national union to bail it out. I recommend that you stay away from blue-state munis. Kelly Nolan of The Wall Street Journal, writes:
Illinois sold a 10-year bond at a yield of 2.94%, 0.75 percentage point more than triple-A-rated debt on a benchmark scale kept by Thomson Reuters Municipal Market Data, as of Monday’s close.
The so-called Build Illinois bond sale received a top triple-A rating from Standard & Poor’s, and the second highest investment-grade rating of double-A-plus from Fitch Ratings. Market participants said the state paid a premium on the sales-tax bonds because of its fiscal troubles.
Legislators in Illinois again failed to pass pension overhaul recently. Last week, both Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service cut the state’s rating on its general-obligation bonds down a notch because of the state’s inaction.
