Navajos Rated Above California Plan First Bonds: Muni Credit

The Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe by members and reservation size, plans to issue its first bonds in a $120 million offering that would be the biggest sale of nongaming tribal debt in at least a decade. With more than $1 billion in reserves, the nation gets almost one-third of its revenue from oil, gas and coal royalties. It plans to use the proceeds to finance about 50 projects, including a tourist center, on its 27,000-square-mile reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, according to the Navajo Division of Economic Development. The nation carries an A rating from Standard & Poor’s, one level above California’s. The sale is intended to create thousands of jobs and stimulate the economy on a reservation where, even with energy revenue, more than 37 percent of the 170,000 residents lived below the federal poverty level in 2009...more