Active and Retired Members of the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island: As directed by the General Assembly and required by Rhode Island Law, the General Treasurer has convened a Pension Advisory Working Group to assess the impacts of the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011. The Advisory Working Group is scheduled to meet six times over the next four months, beginning Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. All meetings will be open to the public and livestreamed by CapitolTV. ERSRI members are encouraged to submit written testimony to gentreasurer@treasury.ri.gov, or through the online submission form. More information concerning the scheduled meeting dates and the members of the Advisory Working Group can be found here.
Treasurer Diossa Announces Successful Sale of General Obligation Bonds Published on Wednesday, October 25, 2023 Providence, RI – Today, Rhode Island General Treasurer James A. Diossa announced that the State of Rhode Island had a successful sale of $146,705,000 of General Obligation Bonds (GO), comprised of $122,405,000 of Consolidated Capital Development Loan of 2023, Series A (Tax-Exempt) and $24,300,000 of Consolidated Capital Development Loan of 2023, Series B (Federally Taxable). “Across the nation, we have witnessed a recent sharp sell-off in the bond market, yet the demand for Rhode Island bonds continues to be strong, as demonstrated during the successful two-day order period,” said General Treasurer Diossa. “Whether it’s our financing of housing, clean energy, infrastructure, or the community, Rhode Island GO bonds is the ideal investment vehicle to put dollars to work.” During the order period, the State received orders for the bonds totaling over $460 million, representing 3.2x the bonds offered. The orders included almost $200 million of orders from retail investors. Given the investor demand, the yields on the tax-exempt bonds were reduced by up to 8 basis points. The final all-in true interest cost for both the tax-exempt and taxable bonds was 4.52%. The bonds will help support a range of key capital projects that have been approved by the voters, including school building construction, affordable housing, economic development and environmental needs. The bonds were rated AA by Fitch Ratings and S&P and Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service. Fitch Ratings revised the State’s outlook from stable to positive.