By Jacque Day
Springfield, IL – The state of Illinois is paying its bills by selling $1.5 billion dollars of tax-exempt Tobacco Revenue Bonds. The governor's office reports, the bond sale provides the state with revenue to pay all Fiscal Year 2010 bills and transfers by mid-December. Illinois Capital Markets Director John Sinsheimer says the sale will yield $1.35 billion dollars up-front plus $150 million per year over the next several years. This is the first time the state has issued tobacco bonds. They're backed by payments from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, in which tobacco product manufacturers compensated 46 states for medical costs associated with diseases caused by tobacco use.