Economic development bonds let governments help businesses

Toby Rittner wants to help communities leverage their limited financial resources to solve the needs of business, industry, developers and investors.

Rittner is CEO of the Council of Development Finance Agencies, a nonprofit organization that provides research, training and technical assistance to government entities that want to explore how bonds and other development financing tools can support and encourage public and private investment in infrastructure, redevelopment and other projects that benefit a community’s economy. Continue reading

Bonds Benefit Both Parties to a Contract, Not Just the Client

 

Kendra Zacharias-Trujillo

Kendra Zacharias-Trujillo, Rio Grande Insurance Services Inc.

Many contractors — especially those with a demonstrated reliability and good credit — resent that they’re required to be bonded for the work they do and consider bonds an unnecessary expense for something that doesn’t appear to provide a tangible benefit.

But bonds protect the interests of both parties to a contract: They’re a form of credit that helps the contractor attract serious, big-ticket clients, and they assure the client that he will receive money to cover the costs of finishing a project that isn’t completed to contract terms.

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