Calvert County’s 2026 bond sale ended up larger than the number the county had been quoting for weeks. Commissioners approved the final terms on Sept. 29: $78.87 million in general obligation bonds, sold to Hilltop Securities at a true interest cost of 4.658%. The county’s chief financial officer rounded that to about 4.66% when presenting the results. When the county announced its credit ratings two weeks earlier, it put the series at $75.9 million.
The county’s chief financial officer told commissioners that the sale, after issuance costs, will bring in about $80.5 million for projects the board has already approved. That money is meant to cover facilities, roads, public safety, schools, and water and sewer work. She said repayment will run over 15 to 25 years. Market data shows the bonds maturing each July 1 from 2027 through 2051, with those from 2036 onward callable at par, meaning the county can pay them off early after July 1, 2036.
The sale was competitive, so the county did not negotiate a price. It took bids, and the lowest true interest cost to the county won. A financial adviser from Davenport & Company said about 10 firms bid. Hilltop came in at 4.66%, and the highest bid was 4.87%, a spread of 21 basis points. JPMorgan, the second-lowest bidder, finished less than a basis point behind. Commissioners did not need to review the project list again, because they had approved it before the sale. The authority behind the sale is House Bill 1513, which the governor signed on April 28 as Chapter 339 and which caps the county’s borrowing at $80,957,080. The final proceeds fit under that ceiling.
The projects behind the borrowing include Northern and Southern middle school work, a replacement St. Leonard fire and rescue facility, Prince Frederick Loop Road, the Solomons wastewater plant, and renovations at the Calvert Pines Senior Center, as the Chronicle reported when the sale was announced. Calvert’s school system is also working through a $223.8 million repair backlog as the state’s share shrinks, which adds to the demands on the county’s capital program.
The rating is what the county credits for the pricing. A commissioner told the finance staff earlier in the same meeting that rating agencies “don’t hand it out lightly,” and the finance staff described the county’s reserves, conservative revenue forecasts and a debt affordability model as the base of its credit profile. The CFO said Calvert has held AAA ratings from S&P, Moody’s and Fitch since 2016, a run that the Maryland Association of Counties reported as a sixth straight year in 2021. The county’s September announcement called this the eighth consecutive assessment at the top rating, all with stable outlooks. Commissioner President Todd Ireland said the rating makes it possible “to borrow funds at favorable rates.”
How favorable depends on the comparison. For scale, a $39.9 million issue in October 2020, priced at a 1.3% true interest cost, was sold in a very different rate environment. Next door, St. Mary’s County sold $61.5 million in August at 3.97%, but the sales were weeks apart and differ in size and maturity, so the rates are not a like-for-like measure.
What residents will feel is the repayment. These are general obligation bonds, backed by the county’s full faith and credit, so debt service is paid from county revenue, chiefly property taxes. The county has not yet published an annual debt service figure for the new bonds, and the final resolution, which the CFO said will be posted on the commissioners’ website, is where the principal due each year will appear. The finance staff told the board the same day that debt service and capital needs are part of the early FY2028 budget planning.
