The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

April 14, 2009

Thinking small on bonds

Bill would offer bonds to small investors

By Mark Fischenich

Minnesotans looking for a new investment opportunity will be able to buy a piece of Minnesota under a proposal that passed the state House.

Investors can buy a little higher education asset preservation. They can get a piece of a national solar testing lab or a part of a new cafeteria at the Red Lake school. They can purchase some flood mitigation in Albert Lea and some wetland easements around the state. They can get a bit of the Moose Lake Sex Offender Program expansion or a new nursing home for military veterans.

Actually, investors in Minnesota First Bonds could get some of all of that and more.

“This is kind of like the war bond idea,” said Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, who proposed the change in state law that would allow average Minnesotans to invest in state infrastructure projects.

Those projects are funded through bonding bills passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Typically hundreds of millions of dollars of general obligation bonds are authorized, and they’re bought by large finance companies.

Morrow’s proposal was to allow bonds as small as $500 to be sold so that smaller investors could get a piece of the action. The minimum was raised to $1,000 when it was included in the House bonding bill, which would fund $200 million in projects this year as written.

Buying state bonds wouldn’t make anybody rich. Because they’re extremely low risk, the bonds pay interest rates that are also very low. But Morrow said there is at least some attractiveness to the bonds among individuals and groups who want to support investment in the state’s infrastructure — and the jobs that come with it.

Construction industry groups and labor unions looking for investment options for pension funds would be expected to buy bonds, he said. In fact, the idea for Minnesota First Bonds came from Larry Nurre, the retired president of the Mankato-based Southern Minnesota Construction company.

“Larry said, ‘You know, I’d love to be able to invest directly in projects that are going to be built in Minnesota,’” Morrow said.

Under the proposal, the Department of Management and Budget would establish the program for selling the smaller-denomination pieces of the general obligation bonds and develop a marketing strategy for offering them to the public.

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