Standard & Poor's assigned its single-A ratings to the bonds and Moody's Investors awarded them an A3 rating. The Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities will sell the bonds. Colorado residents who buy them are exempt from both federal and state taxes.

NCSL currently leases space in the Denver Post, multi-tenant high-rise in Downtown.

The Denver architectural firm Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois will design the three-story building scheduled to open in October 2002 that will house 200 employees. Pinkerton Construction is the general contractor.

The bonds will be sold on July 3.

NCSL is comprised of the nation's 7,424 state legislators and an estimated 35,000 state legislative staff members. All 50 states, and the nation's commonwealths and territories, pay membership dues.

The organization played a key role in guaranteeing states would receive all the funds --an estimated $206 billion over 25 years -- from the historic tobacco settlement. NCSL also played a key role in the passage the federal unfunded mandates act and advocated greater flexibility for states in Medicaid reforms, surface transportation and children's health. NCSL also advocates states' rights in cases before the United States Supreme Court.