Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva hailed the announcement of a $20 million allocation to Tucson Unified School District for qualified school construction bonds. The bonds are a joint project from the Departments of Education and Treasury appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Created by the Recovery Act, qualified school construction bonds help state and local governments obtain low-cost financing for much needed public school improvements and construction. Investors who buy these bonds receive Federal income tax credits at prescribed tax credit rates in lieu of interest. These tax credit bonds essentially allow state and local governments to borrow without incurring interest costs.

“This is much needed relief for Arizona’s schools,” said Grijalva. “Modernizing our schools will create important construction jobs and help to prepare our students to compete in today’s global economy.”

The ARRA provided for the issuance of $11 billion of qualified school construction bonds by states and large local educational agencies in 2009 and $11 billion in 2010. The 2010 allocations include $6.6 billion of bonding authority to the 50 states and the remaining $4.4 billion of volume cap to 103 large local educational agencies under a statutory formula tied to levels of federal education grant funding.

The State of Arizona received an allocation of just over $171 million.