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$98 Million in Recovery Bonds to Create Construction Jobs and Training Programs

June 12, 2009

The City of Memphis will receive $69,272,000 million and Shelby County will receive $29,097,000 million in bonds.

“Recovery Zone Bonds are crucial to helping underserved areas that have been particularly hard-hit by job losses,” Congressman Cohen said. “Local governments can leverage these bonds to jump-start construction projects, create job training programs, and invest in education to help spur economic development. Bottom line, these funds will help to create lots of good-paying jobs for people in the Ninth District. I commend President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner for their quick implementation of this funding which I was pleased to support in the ARRA.”

The Memphis and Shelby County bonds will come from two sources – Economic Development Bonds and Facility Bonds.

Memphis will receive $27,709,000 million and Shelby County will receive $11,639,000 million of Economic Development Bonds. Economic Development Bonds are a type of taxable Build America Bond that allow state and local governments to obtain lower borrowing costs through a new direct federal payment subsidy. For 45 percent of the interest, a broad range of qualified economic development projects, such as job training and educational programs will be financed.

Additionally, Memphis will receive $41,563,000 million and Shelby County will receive $17,458,000 million of Facility Bonds. Recovery Zone Facility Bonds are a type of traditional tax-exempt private activity bond that may be used by private businesses in designated recovery zones to finance a broad range of depreciable capital projects.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the funds as a part of the Recovery Zone Bonds program that was created by the ARRA.

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