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Perry asks feds to raise bond guarantee limit
Gov. Rick Perry is once again making a plea to the U.S. Treasury Department to raise a cap that limits how much debt the state’s Permanent School Fund can back for local school districts.
Twice, Perry’s call to the Bush administration fell on deaf ears. But the hope is the Obama administration might be more willing to listen.
School districts are able to use the value of the Permanent School Fund to back bonds used to pay for new facilities and that lowers to the cost of borrowing. The state estimates that the program saves districts $100 million.
State law sets the bonding capacity at five times the value of the fund, now about $19 billion. But the federal limit is half that much.
By lifting the cap, Perry writes, “you would be helping improve Texas school facilities and protect Texas taxpayers against unnecessary costs and potential tax increases.”
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By Stephen
July 23, 2009 11:48 AM | Link to this
So Perry wants to play Lehman Bros with the PSF? Ugh.
By dw
July 24, 2009 8:49 AM | Link to this
so he wants help from the feds? after pokes a finger in their eye? why should they help him now?
By perrysballs
July 24, 2009 10:26 AM | Link to this
where’s my check !
By Kay
August 5, 2009 10:20 AM | Link to this
I don’t want Obama to listen to Perry.
By Dr. Kenneth LePig
August 13, 2009 12:40 PM | Link to this
The PSF does not need to be expanded, thus further leveraging the guarantee of school debt of the fund beyond it’s current limit of 2.50 X fund value. The reason the Perry group wants to see the expansion is due to the current stock market valuation…the fund has decreased in value. How about if our Permanent School Fund reallocate to less equities in the portfolio. It is ridiculous that the “professional managers” running the fund allowed the value to drop from $26 Billion to $18 Billion… When will the world realize that the stock market is fraught with risk and fraud?