07-11-2012 Board Grants Authorization to Proceed to Refinance Bond Debt of Community Facilities District (CFD) 98-1

 

The Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education granted preliminary authorization to refinance the bond debt of Community Facilities District 98-1. The low interest rate environment in the bond market presents a great opportunity to refinance CFD 98-1 located in Crystal Cove. 

At the direction of the Board of Education, District staff assembled a well-respected team consisting of an underwriter, bond counsel, and a special tax consultant with solid experience in refinancing CFD bonds. Stone & Youngberg, a Division of Stifel Nicolaus, will serve as the underwriter, Stradling, Yocca, Carlson, & Rauth will serve as bond counsel, and David Traussig & Associates, Inc. will serve as special tax consultant. Each of the three firms worked successfully with the District in the past on previous financing projects.

The savings generated by the bond refinancing go entirely to the taxpayer, no proceeds go to the District. Importantly, there are no associated costs borne by the District for this refinancing. LBUSD’s role is simply to account for the transactions or records. While exact rates will be determined at the time of issuance of the bonds, estimated savings to the taxpayers is considerable. 

Currently, the estimated savings to taxpayers with CFD 98-1 over the life of the bond debt is $1,370,982. Average saving per residential unit should exceed $100 annually during the life of the bond debt. 

The LBUSD Board of Education will have an opportunity to provide final authorization at a future board meeting once the bond refinancing documents and preliminary official statement for the disclosure of the terms of the refinancing to prospective investors is presented and complete.