SAGINAW, MI-Officials with Saginaw County decided on Thursday to postpone a $60-million bond offering to help it fund its pension system because investors, spooked by Detroit's bankruptcy filing, are now demanding higher interest rates.
The fallout from the Detroit Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing has caused other municipalities across the state of Michigan to postpone bond sales due to concerns by some investors that municipal bond financing is not as safe as many had believed.
Saginaw County was just one of a number of bond sales that have been impacted by the fiscal misfortunes of Detroit. Recently, Genesee County, which is located about 60 miles northwest of Detroit, pulled a $53-million bond sale last week, and earlier this week Battle Creek, which is about 120 miles west of the Motor City, postponed a $16-million offering, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Our advisors felt that investors in the current market were not giving the quality of the credit appropriate weight," Saginaw County Controller and Chief Administrative Officer Robert Belleman said in a statement. See story in the Wall Street Journal.
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