The City of Houston invest public funds in a manner which will provide the highest investment return with the maximum security while meeting the daily cash flow demands of the City and conforming to all state and local statutes governing the investment of public funds. Public funds are invested through programs such as General Funds, Special Revenue Funds, General Debt Service Funds, Capital Project Funds, Enterprise Funds, and Trust and Agency Funds. The City’s investment portfolio is $5.2 billion.
The City’s investment portfolio shall be designed with the objective of attaining the best feasible rate of return, throughout budgetary and economic cycles, commensurate with the City’s investment risk constraints and the cash flow. The City’s investment portfolio will remain sufficiently liquid to enable the City to meet all operating requirements and the funds shall be undertaken in a manner that seeks to ensure the preservation of capital for the overall portfolio.
Why Purchase City of Houston Municipal Bonds?
Municipal bonds have been essential to Houston’s growth. I am not sure most of the people who back them—the taxpayers— know the true value of municipal bonds. In short, bonds have allowed the City of Houston to accommodate all the new citizens in our city, over a quarter million moving here from other U.S. towns and cities just in the last decade. Our public schools, streets, water system, sewer system, airports, mass transit and the many public amenities for citizens—parks, libraries, health clinics—are all made possible by tax revenue and bonds. And it’s been that way for most American cities for the past 100 years.
Why would the City issue bonds? Why would we want to accumulate debt, rather than relieve the debt we already have? It’s much like a young family looking to buy their first house: they certainly don’t want to save their money for 30 years, living in a small apartment, so they can finally buy a house outright. Instead, they go to a bank and arrange for a 30-year loan, a mortgage. Yes, they could look at this transaction as one of indebtedness, but of course they choose to look at it as their first home. ... More (.pdf)