About Government Finance

The attorneys on our Government Finance team serve as bond counsel and have a broad range of experience representing bond issuers, borrowers, underwriters, bond purchasers, remarketing agents and banks/credit enhancement providers in tax-exempt and taxable bond financing transactions. The team’s legal expertise and familiarity with available financing options and a wide variety of financing structures provide practical, effective and cost-saving solutions to our clients.

Our Government Finance team also draws upon the expertise and experience of attorneys in the Firm’s other practice areas – including municipal and school law, health care law, non-profit/501(c)(3) organizations, real estate development and construction, banking and commercial finance, and tax and securities law – to bring value to our clients no matter what role they play in public finance transactions.

Our financing experience includes:

• WHEFA and local issue health care bonds;
• Public Finance Authority bond issues for projects nationwide;
• General municipal obligation and revenue bonds;
• School district school construction bonds (and bond referenda) and cash flow borrowings;
• Low-income housing bonds;
• Industrial revenue bonds (IRBs);
• Bank letters of credit to support tax-exempt and taxable corporate bonds;
• Tribal purpose and taxable gaming bonds issued by Indian tribes;
• Bonds financing senior and assisted living housing facilities; and
• Workouts and restructuring involving government bonds.

Representative Transactions

From July 2011 through October 2013 we served in various capacities with respect to approximately $800 million of Bonds issued to finance or refinance various projects including an electric utility, a retail store, an office building, a number of private schools, colleges and universities, a health care facility, a nonprofit radio network, a fleet of emergency helicopters, a senior housing project and transportation facilities. Although our focus is on Wisconsin transactions, we have provided legal services in connection with Bonds financing projects in 23 other states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

• We served as Bond Counsel to the Baraboo School District (Sauk and Columbia Counties, Wisconsin) with respect to its $4,850,000 Tax and Revenue Anticipation Promissory Notes dated November 3, 2011.
• We served as Bond and Issuer’s Counsel with respect to the $2,050,150 Public Finance Authority Midwestern Disaster Area Revenue Bonds, Series 2011 (DeForest property Group) to finance the construction of a branch office for Settler’s Bank in DeForest (Dane County), Wisconsin, which closed in November 2011.
• We served as Bond and Issuer’s Counsel for a $6,200,000 Public Finance Authority Midwestern Disaster Area Revenue Bond issue that financed construction of a new Miller & Sons full-service grocery store in Mt. Horeb (Dane County), Wisconsin. The bonds were issued on August 21, 2012.
• We provided services as Special Disclosure Counsel in connection with the offering of $2,240,000 General Obligation Refunding Bonds (Bonds) and $1,590,000 General Obligation Promissory Notes (Notes), dated December 4, 2012, issued by the Village of Twin Lakes (Kenosha County), Wisconsin to refinance certain indebtedness and to finance certain projects.

We have also served as Issuer’s Counsel to the Public Finance Authority with respect to the following bond issues:

• $304,975,000 Senior Airport Facilities Revenue and Refunding Bonds for certain affiliates of Aeroterm, Inc. (the “Trips Obligated Group”) dated September 13, 2012, which refinanced 23 separate outstanding bond issues that were used to fund the construction of airport facilities located in (among other major cities) Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Louisville, Miami, Milwaukee, Newark, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Orlando and Philadelphia (there was a companion issue of $127,000,000 by the New York City Industrial Development Agency that refinanced certain Trips Obligated Group facilities at JFK International in New York).
• $15,600,000 Midwestern Disaster Area Revenue Bonds issued on September 22, 2011, to finance the construction of a Concentrated Dairy Animal Feeding Operation located in the Town of Bradford (Rock County), Wisconsin for RPD Holdings, LLC and HGI Wisconsin, LLC.
• $11,462,285 of Development Revenue Bonds dated May 15, 2012 to finance new construction of a medical clinic/health facility in Madison, Wisconsin for Wingra Clinic. This was a New Markets Tax Credit Transaction.
• $37,500,000 Tax-Exempt Refunding Revenue Bonds (Educational Media Foundation Project), Series 2013A and $19,000,000 Taxable Refunding Revenue Bonds (Educational Media Foundation Project), Series 2013B (issued October 31, 2013) to refinance the costs of licensing and capital equipment for a non-profit foundation supporting radio stations in 31 cities, towns and villages in 11 states: Hoxie, Marked Tree and Trumann, Arkansas; Glendale Heights, Orion, Rock Island and Villa Park, Illinois; Morganfield and Henderson, Kentucky; Winfall and Elizabeth City, North Carolina; Edmond, Okemah, Okfuskee, Oklahoma City and Welumka, Oklahoma; Livermore, California; La Porte, Texas; Lee’s Summit and Independence, Missouri; Medical Lake and Reardan, Washington; Lewiston and Litchfield, Maine; Deerfield, New Rochelle, Port Chester and Utica, New York; Morristown, Tennessee, and Mukwonago and Waukesha, Wisconsin.
• $6,039,500 of Industrial Development Revenue Bonds issued in November 23, 2011, to refinance automotive parts manufacturing facilities located in Baraboo, Wisconsin and Columbus, Indiana for Seats, Inc. and Flambeau, Inc., both subsidiaries of the Nordic Group.
• • $15,420,000 Revenue Bond (Critical Care Services, Inc. Project) Series 2013 – these bonds, issued in September 2013, financed a fleet of six “Flight-for-Life” helicopters operated by a non-profit corporation at underserved rural locations in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
• $59,500,000 Midwestern Disaster Area Revenue Bonds (Series 2012A through 2012D) to finance the Edgewater, a Hotel/Mixed-Use Development in Madison, Wisconsin. This was a New Markets Tax Credit Transaction.
• $54,481,179 Energy Improvement Nonrecourse Promissory Note, Series 2013 (Newark Housing Authority Project) which refinanced a lease by the Newark, NJ, Housing Authority of energy improvement equipment for approximately 9,000 public housing units it its program.
• $56,627,500 Revenue Bonds dated September 12, 2012, to construct the Las Ventanas Retirement Community, a senior housing project in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Revenue Bonds issued December 2012 in the amount of $38,720,000 issued to finance facilities for the South Jordan, Utah and Henderson, Nevada campuses of Roseman University of Health Sciences, a Medical/Dental School. We served as Issuer’s Counsel.
• $10,000,000 Revenue Bond dated January 2012 to finance capital projects for Westminster Christian Private School, a K-12 Charter School in Palmetto Bay (Miami-Dade County), Florida.
• $31,295,000 Educational Facilities Taxable and Tax-Exempt Refunding Revenue Bonds to refinance capital projects for Northwest University, a private post-secondary educational institution located in Kirkland, Washington. The closing was on August 30, 2012.
• $6,715,000 Educational Facility Revenue Bonds issued on October 4, 2012, for Horizon Academy West, a charter school located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• $10,400,000 Education Facility Revenue Bonds for Cottonwood Classic Preparatory School, a Grades 6-12 Middle/High Charter School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The transaction closed on December 19, 2012, and we served as Issuer’s Counsel.
• For Pfeiffer University, a private post-secondary educational institution with campuses in Charlotte, Misenheimer and Morrisville, North Carolina, $15,923,238 of Education Facility Revenue Bonds December 2012.
• $27,840,000 Senior Airport Facilities Revenue and Refunding Bonds (AFCO Investors II Portfolio), Series 2013.
• $5,500,000 Revenue Refunding Bond (Rehoboth Christian School Association Project) Series 2013
• $4,140,000 Educational Facilities Revenue Refunding Bond (Johnson C. Smith University, Incorporated), Series 2013
• $7,500,000 Educational Facilities Revenue Refunding Bond (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), Series 2013
• $23,000,000 School Facilities Revenue Bond (The Hun School of Princeton Project), Series 2013A and Series 2013B.
• $11,970,000 Education Revenue Bonds (Carolina International School) Series 2013A and $275,000 Taxable Education Revenue Bonds (Carolina International School) Series 2013B.