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Ohio Tobacco, Louisiana, San Jose: U.S. Municipal Bond Alert 

OHIO, the seventh most-populous U.S. state, plans to sell the largest-ever offering of bonds backed by annual payments from the 1998 tobacco settlement beginning today. The state's Buckeye Tobacco Settlement Financing Authority is to issue $5.5 billion of tax-exempt bonds with maturities ranging from 2009 to 2057, including fixed-rate, floating-rate and zero-coupon securities. Bear Stearns Cos. and Citigroup Inc. are leading a group of 35 investment banks marketing the bonds to investors. Individuals can place orders today and Oct. 22, with final pricing for funds, banks, insurers and other institutional investors set for Oct. 23. The bonds, backed by 100 percent of the payments owed to Ohio under the master settlement agreement with cigarette makers, will fund education projects around the state. (Updated Oct. 19)

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