State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s bond sale went better than expected, selling a total of $6.5 billion worth of general obligation bonds in two days.
Of that pool of funds, $3.8 billion will be used to repay earlier loans from the Pooled Money Investment Board (which makes loans to state and local agencies for public works projects and is repaid through bond sales). Another $1 billion will go for transportation, water, school construction and flood control projects approved by voters in 2006; $1 billion to pay outstanding bills that piled up for completed projects, and $700 million to get long-delayed public works projects under way. Lists of the projects can be found here.
For months, California was unable to sell bonds, which are repaid with money from the state’s general operating fund, because of a sluggish bond market and the lack of a balanced state budget. Legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed the second of those problems last month, and a lack of more lucrative places to park investment funds made California’s bonds more attractive than state officials had hoped.