The Office of the State Treasurer is responsible for the issuance and management of the State of Vermont's debt in a prudent and cost-effective manner. The State Treasury issues long-term debt consistent with authorization by the legislature. The full faith and credit of the State is pledged to the payment of the State's general obligation bonds. General Obligation bonds are used for numerous purposes including construction and renovation of state office buildings and state recreational, cultural, health, correctional and educational facilities; making grants to municipalities for the purposes of funding wastewater and drinking water facilities upgrades; transportation projects funding (recent); and for other capital projects.

The Treasurer also is authorized to issue short-term notes for the purpose of raising funds to pay the expenses of government for which appropriations have been made but for which anticipated revenues have not been received, and other proposed uses outlined by statute. These can take the form of Revenue Anticipation Notes (RANs), Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs), commercial paper, or other related borrowing instruments.

The Treasurer may issue general obligation refunding bonds. In a refunding situation, new bonds are issued to retire existing bonds in order to take advantage of lower interest rates. Issuing bonds in order to pay off earlier bonds prior to their maturity dates is called advance refunding.

Recent Bond Issues

The State sold $20 million of Vermont Citizen bonds and another $38.83 million of general obligation refunding bonds on February 25. The bonds settled, or closed, on March 11, 2010. The State was able to lock in a total interest cost of 2.5 percent. The yield investors received on the citizen bond purchases ranged from 0.25 percent for bonds maturing in one year to 3.08 percent for bonds maturing in twelve years. More