AUGUSTA (AP) – State Treasurer David Lemoine said Wednesday this week’s sale of Maine bonds went off without apparent ill effect from the pre-sale reductions of Maine’s bond rating by three Wall Street agencies.

Lemoine said the state sold $137.5 million of Maine’s general obligation bonds on Monday and Tuesday at interest rates that were lower than what he called last year’s historically low rates.

“In the open market, the high quality and efficient structure of Maine’s general obligation bonding process has retained its strong investment appeal,” Lemoine said in a statement.

According to Lemoine’s office, a True Interest Cost of the new borrowing, blending the tax-exempt and taxable portions of the sale of $110.4 million tax-exempt and $27.1 million taxable was 3.47 percent.

The treasurer’s office said that was 28 basis points lower than the 3.75 percent paid by the state last year in true interest costs.

“This 28 basis point ($1.65 million) in interest cost savings is particularly significant given the fact that the Federal Reserve has raised the Fed Funds rate by 200 basis points over the same period,” Lemoine said.

According to the treasurer’s office, retail sales orders for tax-exempt bonds totaled $32 million, up from last year by 11 percent.

Taxable and the remaining tax-exempt bonds were sold to institutions, mostly bond funds, insurance companies and money managers, officials said.

Prior to this week’s sale, Maine’s ratings had been lowered by Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Rating and Standard & Poor’s.

The state faces a mid-August deadline for issuing revenue bonds called for in the pending biennial budget, but lawmakers are discussing ways to replace that portion of the budget package in the face of a people’s veto petition drive.