Denver — The Bond Buyer, the national public finance daily newspaper, has named Colorado’s Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) financing one of two Southwest regional winners for the 8th Annual Deal of the Year Awards. Proceeds from the BEST financing, completed in August of this year, are being used to construct four new public schools in the San Luis Valley for school districts that do not have the local property tax base to pay for the schools themselves.

“Despite the tough economic circumstances we are currently facing, we are proud to be partnering with the citizens of the San Luis Valley to ensure better opportunities for their children and grandchildren,” said State Treasurer Cary Kennedy. “We are especially pleased to achieve interest-free financing to make Coloradans' money go farther.”

With the unprecedented use of financing tools recently made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Treasurer’s office was able to design interest-free financing, freeing $45 million for additional projects in high-need communities that otherwise would have been used to pay interest. In addition to the State Treasurer, the financing team included bond counsel Kutak Rock LLP, financial advisor Piper Jaffray & Co., disclosure counsel Sherman & Howard LLC and an underwriting team led by RBC Capital Markets with co-managers J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., George K. Baum & Co. and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc.