County involved in Prestage financing

Prestage Foods of Iowa’s multi-million dollar processing plant is under construction and still expected to be completed in Novermber of 2018. However, there’s still a lot of work to be done before that point, and that’s not just on the construction side—business and finance are a major part of the effort.

One Monday, the county board of supervisors held a conference call with bond lawyers from Dorsey and Whitney LLP in Des Moines in regard to a request from Prestage to work with the county to finance a portion of their construction with a lower interest rate.

Government bodies are able to borrow funds at a lower interest rate than commercial entities.

“We call those tax-exempt municipal bonds,” said Jon Danos, a partner at Dorsey and Whitney. “Provisions in the income tax code allow private business interests, if the conditions are right, to also take advantage of tax-exempt borrowing.”

Read the full story in the September 28 edition.