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Particular holding in PTIAX

CrashCrash
in Fund Discussions
First of all, who can TRANSLATE this? I know it's SOMEHOW connected to Gambling, now commonly euphemized as "gaming." In Mississippi. A State agency is floating a 5% bond to do... what, exactly, for the sake of casinos? Or...? It's just 0.45% of the full PTIAX portfolio, the 24th-largest holding.
"Mississippi State Gaming Tax Revenue."

To encourage people to gamble? At taxpayers' expense? To rebuild casinos after one of the hurricanes? I can't come up with an honest, ethical reason for that particular State agency to be floating its own bonds. What is this about?

Comments

  • msf
    These bonds completely disconnect the use of the proceeds from source of revenue to pay for them.

    These are revenue bonds, backed and paid for exclusively from, as you speculated, riverboat gambling. Okay, not exactly something that colorful, but pretty close. However, the money goes to something more productive - infrastructure.

    I'm guessing these are the bonds the fund is invested in:
    In October 2015, the State issued $200,000,000 in Gaming Tax Revenue Bonds (Series 2015E). The proceeds from this sale will be used for the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) to construct an over-the-railroad bridge in Vicksburg, the Local System Bridge Program within State Aid Road Fund, and for deficient bridges on state highways. The debt service revenues are derived solely from gaming tax revenue collections from casinos located along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast.
    https://www.treasurerlynnfitch.ms.gov/Programs/Documents/Bonds/Debt Affordability Study 2017.pdf
  • CrashCrash
    @msf Thanks. Quite clear. "These bonds completely disconnect the use of the proceeds from source of revenue to pay for them..." Reminds me of our city trash collection fee. It went up from $45 to $90 in one swoop. What's the new, additional $45 for? The LIBRARIES. For better service? To be able to cease keeping some branches closed and some branches open, from day to day, on a rotating basis? No. If the fee-hike allows for the buying of new material to read, listen to or watch, that would be a good thing, anyhow. These days, libraries are so... DIFFERENT. Noisy. With "pyjama parties" with stories being read to the youngest ones. Because we've all given up the idea that mom and dad might take the time to read to their kids? Cripes. High school-age Board Members, too.
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