H.R. 4337, The Gulf Opportunity Zone Public Finance Relief Act of 2005

• This item is from the 109th Congress (2005-2006) and is no longer current. Comments, voting, and wiki editing have been disabled, and the cost/savings estimate has been frozen.

H.R. 4337 would provide the states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi an additional opportunity to advance refund certain tax-exempt bonds. (Advance refunding occurs when a state or local government issues new tax-exempt bonds and uses the proceeds from the new bonds to gradually repay the debt on their existing tax-exempt bonds. Current law limits the number of times an entity can advance refund.) The act also would allow the same three states to issue new tax-credit bonds. H.R. 4337 also would authorize the Secretary of Treasury to guarantee 50 percent of the outstanding principal of certain bonds issued by Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The legislation would limit the total principal of those bonds.