Nev. selling bonds to pay back federal debt
By Priya Anand, Bloomberg
Nevada, whose 9.5 percent unemployment rate is the nation’s highest, plans to sell $572 million in bonds this week to repay the federal government for jobless benefits. It’s the state’s biggest sale since 2008.
The borrowing would pay down the $520 million Nevada owes the U.S. for bolstering its unemployment fund after the longest recession since the 1930s pushed the jobless rate to a record 14 percent in 2010. That debt peaked at $846 million in 2012.
Sixteen states and the Virgin Islands collectively owe the federal government $21.3 billion for boosting jobless funds as the national unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 9.9 percent, Labor Department figures show. Nevada is the eighth-most indebted, with California leading at $9.5 billion.
