Putnam Bond Moving Quickly While Interest Rates Are Low

The process is moving quickly after this week’s $98 million bond approval by the Putnam County Commission.

Mayor Randy Porter said the process is getting an extra push because of the current low interest rates Porter said the county’s bond rating will go out to interested bidders, then typically large banks will compete to be the lowest bidder on the issued bonds.

“The bonds will go to the open market on August 9, which is less than two weeks away,” Porter said. “Then you go through the closing documents and all that kind of stuff. We should have our money somewhere around the end of August, first part of September.”

Porter said the County uses Raymond James for financial advising through this process. Porter said the county will get the money in a lump sum, to be deposited into the county’s capital projects fund.

“It will sit there, drawing interest until the projects start,” Porter said. “As the projects move forward, usually they’re 24 to 36 months to get the buildings built while you withdraw from those funds in the capital projects account to pay for all the invoices that come in.”

Porter said that the county’s financial standing is another reason the process is moving smoothly. He said the county’s bond rating has been a help.

“We’ve got a AA rating, the very highest is a AAA rating,” Porter said. “The state of Tennessee has that, and maybe one or two other counties in the state. So the AA rating is very high and it usually helps us to get much better interest rates and favorable conditions when it comes to doing a bond.”

Porter said that Moody’s is the one who puts the county’s bond rating out to interested bidders. Porter said the county has used Raymond James for financial advising since 2014.