Pennsylvania Capital Avoids Default With $3.3 Million Payment
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Pennsylvania’s capital city of Harrisburg made the $3.3 million payment due today on a 1997 general-obligation bond, averting what would have been the second-largest municipal-bond default in the U.S. this year.
The city of 47,000 was sued this week by its home county, Dauphin, and Hamilton, Bermuda-based bond insurer Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. over its failure to honor guarantees on millions of dollars in debt service costs related to a trash incinerator. Harrisburg notified bond-holders Aug. 30 it didn’t have the funds to make the Sept. 15 payments on its 1997 Series D and 1997 Series F bonds.