Ridgefield Press
GOVERNMENT: Town may refinance $65 million

Mar 24, 2008

The town is poised to refinance a $65-million bond issue to take advantage of lower interest rates, said Janette Marcoux, the town’s bond adviser.

Ms. Marcoux came to the March 5 Board of Selectmen’s meeting to ask for approval of the $65-million bond “refunding.”

“You can only refinance bonds once due to the tax laws,” she told the selectmen. “With this resolution in place, when there is an opportunity, we will be able to move fairly quickly,” she said, referring to a proposed resolution to approve the refunding.

The selectmen voted to approve refinancing the $65-million bond, and they also voted to adopt a policy that will require consultation with the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education before any “typical debt issuance.”

Ms. Marcoux told the selectmen that she thought the town would save more than $1.5 million in debt service by refinancing the bond issue.

“What brought this to the surface is our bond adviser is constantly looking at other opportunities,” Town Controller Jay Wahlberg said. “The town could have saved $1.5 million a few weeks ago, but that market died on us.”

Ms. Marcoux said she expected the town would be able to take advantage of a similar market for bonds in the next few weeks.

“There’s an opportunity out there with low rates, and we have some old paper — let’s refinance it,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.

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