Types of Bonds and Securities
Set forth below are brief descriptions of certain commonly used traditional public financing municipal bond structures. Please click on each link to learn more about each financing structure and how it might fit your project needs. The Weist Law Firm offers knowledgeable advice on a variety of financing methods, including:
- Certificates of Participation The capital project financed by certificates of participation is leased to the municipality on a year to year basis, the payments of which are “certificated” and sold to investors, thereby avoiding the 2/3 public vote requirements otherwise required prior to a municipality incurring debt.
- Revenue Bonds The Weist Law Firm has worked on virtually every type of revenue bond issue imaginable. The Firm focuses particularly on enterprise revenue bonds, including Build America Bonds; that is, bonds payable from the revenues of an enterprise conducted by the public entity that issues the bonds, such as: Energy Revenue Bonds, Parking Revenue Bonds, Port Revenue Bonds, Power Revenue Bonds, Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), Wastewater Revenue Bonds, Solid Waste/Resource Recovery Bonds, Water Revenue Bonds, and Other Enterprise Revenue Bonds, including Pooled Revenue Bonds.
- Land Secured Bonds These are typically Mello-Roos Bonds and Assessment Bonds, which are land secured bonds involving the financing of public infrastructure components (including impact mitigation) of commercial and residential development projects.
- Redevelopment Agency Bonds Also known as Tax Increment Bonds or Tax Allocation Bonds, these bonds allow redevelopment agencies to procure immediate funds, secured by the capture of increasing property tax revenue, thereby allowing the completion of community revitalization improvement projects to take place much earlier than would otherwise be the case if financed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
- General Obligation Bonds These bonds must be approved by California registered voters, requiring a two-thirds majority vote (with certain exceptions, such as the 55% vote for school facilities). They are secured by a dedicated special tax levy collected along with property taxes.
