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Existing Obligations and Liabilities

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A&F’s debt capacity analysis includes an examination of existing Commonwealth debt service and contract assistance payment obligations.  The analysis includes all general obligation debt issued through June 30, 2009. The analysis includes only the interest payments on federal grant anticipation notes (GANs); principal payments are made with grants from the Federal Highway Administration that are legally dedicated to such purpose and are not available for general budgeting purposes. Special obligation bonds secured by gas tax receipts are included in the analysis.  Special obligation bonds for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority are not included; although these bonds are obligations of the Commonwealth, they are secured and paid directly by a pledge of dedicated tax and excise revenues related to the convention center projects financed with proceeds of the bonds.  Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) bonds are also not included because they are obligations of the respective authorities, and, although secured in part by a portion of the Commonwealth’s sales tax revenues, the Commonwealth is not liable for such bonds and such sales tax revenues are legally dedicated to the MBTA and MSBA.  The revenues legally dedicated for the convention center bonds and for the MBTA and MSBA bonds are not available for general budgetary purposes and are consequently not included in the budgeted revenue figures taken into account in this analysis.

The Commonwealth’s existing direct debt service obligations for fiscal years 2009 through 2014 are presented in the following table.

Table 1
Existing Direct Debt Service Obligations
Fiscal Years 2009-2014
(in thousands)

Fiscal Year	General Obligations	Federal GANs (interest only)	Special Obligations (gas tax only)	Total Existing Direct Debt Service Obligations
2009	1,830,277	29,425	64,105	1,923,807
2010	1,829,476	53,403	64,111	1,946,990
2011	1,679,834	44,957	64,113	1,788,904
2012	1,703,884	36,880	64,119	1,804,883
2013	1,544,554	28,933	64,102	1,637,589
2014	1,493,014	16,727	59,639	1,569,380

 

Contract assistance obligations, including certain capital lease obligations that relate to major capital projects, were also included in the examination of existing Commonwealth obligations.[1] These obligations for fiscal years 2009 – 2014 are presented in the following table.

 

Table 2
Existing Contract Assistance Obligations
Fiscal Years 2009-2014
(in thousands)

	General Obligation		Budgetary
Fiscal Year	Water Pollution Abatement Trust	Turnpike Authority	Route 3 North Transportation Improvements Association	Plymouth County Correctional Facility	Saltonstall Building	Total Contract Assistance Obligations
2009	66,856	25,000	9,619	10,247	9,506	121,228
2010	67,871	125,000	9,618	10,244	9,578	222,311
2011	70,000	125,000	9,618	10,245	9,693	224,556
2012	70,000	125,000	5,409	10,240	9,770	220,419
2013	70,000	125,000	1,129	10,245	9,848	216,222
2014	70,000	125,000	1,130	10,244	9,929	216,303

 

Exhibit A to this Debt Affordability Analysis lists the line items in the General Appropriations Act that provide for the debt service and contract assistance payment liabilities described above.  It should be noted that the appropriated amounts may not match the amounts reflected in this Debt Affordability Analysis due to more conservative assumptions in this analysis of the timing of bond issues and the resulting impact on fiscal year budgets and different assumptions regarding interest rates.