NJ Still Paying Out to Goldman

A partnership run by Goldman Sachs is receiving about $1 million a month from New Jersey taxpayers as part of an agreement to protect the state from rising interest costs on bonds that it redeemed a year ago. In 2003, under the watch of Governor James McGreevey, the Transportation Trust Fund Authority (which funds transportation projects) sold $345 million in auction-rate bonds, which have yields that are subject to the variation of short-term interest costs. Even though the state replaced the debt with fixed-rate securities last year—a result of the frozen auction-rate bond market—the interest-rate swap it has with Goldman won't expire till 2019. Meanwhile, the TTFA is reaching its borrowing limit, and current Governor Jon Corzine—former chairman of Goldman Sachs—is looking to reduce the budget by some $400 million as he seeks reelection. The NJ Treasury Department is preparing a response, while Corzine's spokesman, Steve Sigmund, said in a statement, "we believe treasury should continue to aggressively manage the termination, conversion, and management of swaps that this administration inherited." Local governments and universities all over the country have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to terminate swaps after interest costs plummeted last year.