BATON ROUGE — An online auction held at a special meeting of the State Bond Commission sold $400 million in State General Obligation (GO) bonds and refinancing of $49 million of existing bonds, saving taxpayers $5.2 million, according to State Treasurer John Kennedy.

“We saved a ton of taxpayer money today,” said Treasurer Kennedy. “We did it by delaying the general obligation bond issues as long as we could and aggressively refinancing our outstanding debt to take advantage of historically low interest rates.”

The State Bond Commission’s online auction pitted investors from across the globe against each other for the two bond sales held today. The winning bids were as follows:

—Auction 1: $400 million in State of Louisiana General Obligation Bonds, Series 2012-A were awarded to J.P. Morgan Securities LLC with an interest rate of 2.72 percent.

—Auction 2: $49 million in State of Louisiana General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2012-B were awarded to Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. with an interest rate of 0.42 percent and will save the state $5.191 million.

The $400 million in General Obligation Bonds will fund 190 projects across the state, including several in the St. Mary area.

In Berwick, $50,000 in bond funds will finance planning and construction on a sewer rehabilitation project on Oregon, Knight, Robichaux and Jeddo streets and Driskill Drive. This is the next phase in a series of sewer upgrades in the city.

Also in the parish, the city of Franklin will receive $60,000 for repairs to the Teche Theatre; while non-profit Teche Action, based in Franklin, will receive $1.45 million to purchase and renovate a building and renovate its current building.

Assumption Parish will receive $260,000 for the planning and construction of a sewer line along Highway 70. The Assumption Council on Aging will receive $960,000 to build its own building; a $16,800 match is required.