Funding board approves minutes, certifies debt-service funds and authorizes $1.034B in GO bonds; cancels $80M in highway bonds

The Tennessee State Funding Board on July 21 took several procedural and financing actions, including approving meeting minutes and multiple resolutions authorizing and cancelling state borrowing.

The board approved the minutes from its June 23, 2025 meeting by voice vote.

Sandy Thompson presented and the board approved a resolution certifying the amount of taxes and fees to be deposited into the debt service fund to cover debt service expenses for fiscal year 2526; the resolution was effective July 1, 2025.

The board approved a resolution cancelling certain unissued general obligation bonds for highway construction projects in the amount of $80,000,000. Thompson said the cancellation follows direction in the 2025 Appropriations Act (cited in the meeting as Public Chapter 530).

The board also approved a resolution authorizing issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $1,034,547,000 pursuant to the fiscal year 2025 bond bill (referred to in the meeting as chapter 528 of the public acts of 2025).

Sandy Thompson presented the annual report on Tennessee's general obligation and commercial paper debt. The report in the packet listed commercial paper outstanding of $3,681,000 (approximately $2,000,000 tax-exempt and $1,681,000 taxable) and bonds outstanding of $511,340,000 taxable and $1,003,245,000 tax-exempt, for a total of $1,514,585,000. The report also listed program expenses, including interest paid for the year ($365,000 reported) and a standby purchase agreement fee of $1,225,000.

Steve Osborne, division of local government finance, provided the annual balloon-indebtedness report. He said the division received four requests during fiscal 2025; all four were approved (three refundings and one new-money gas pre-purchase bond). Osborne said the amount was tied for the second-lowest total since the law took effect in 2015.

The Comptroller's office notified the board that it approved a $650,000 interfund operating loan for the town of Selmer (McNairy County) for tornado-related debris removal; the loan matures June 30, 2027. The transcript identified coordination between the division of local government finance, the town of Selmer and the county mayor.

All motions on resolutions described above were made, seconded and approved by voice vote; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the meeting transcript.