This document discusses the advantages of municipal lease-purchase agreements and certificates of participation (COPs) compared to municipal bonds for financing municipal projects. Municipal lease-purchase agreements for projects under $2 million are placed with a single investor and have a maturity of around 5 years. COPs are better for larger projects over $2 million, with terms of 10-25 years. Key advantages of these alternatives over bonds include not requiring voter approval, providing 100% financing including taxes, having lower costs than bonds, and having a faster and simpler documentation process.