Bonds

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will discuss its proposed change to a one-minute trade reporting window at its upcoming meeting on July 26-27. The board’s amendments to Rule G-14 on transaction reporting obligations caught the ire of dealer groups who argued that benefits to the change would be speculative at best and that shortening trading

Yvette Christine Shields, longtime Bond Buyer reporter who spent decades building a stellar career as one of Chicago’s finest and well-known financial reporters with a national reputation in the public finance industry, died unexpectedly this week. She was 57. Shields died early Wednesday at a Chicago hospital after a brief illness. “Yvette was everything a

Munis continued to show strength Wednesday as several large new issues priced to good demand, with New York City Transitional Finance Authority seeing yields fall as much as of 14 basis points from Tuesday’s retail scales and Salt Lake City upsizing its deal. U.S. Treasuries improved and equities ended in the black. Triple-A yields were

Data standardization across the municipal market will likely take years and much discussion to pinpoint the issues and how the market can solve them. Some of the apparent problems were discussed at the Brookings Municipal Finance Conference where Marc Joffe, federalism and state policy analyst at the Cato Institute, presented his paper outlining them. “If

Oklahoma’s attorney general is pursuing potential legal action against parties that may have illegally profited off of huge demand for electricity and natural gas during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which led to nearly $2.9 billion of bonds being sold last year to cover extraordinary costs incurred by four utility companies.  AG Gentner Drummond announced Tuesday

The Supreme Court of Georgia recently put an end to a long-running legal dispute that held up a state-backed development deal with electric vehicle maker Rivian. The state’s high court last week declined to hear an appeal filed by local residents opposed to the validation of $15 billion of bonds backing the construction of a

As officials in Vermont assess damage from recent floods on a scale not seen since Hurricane Irene battered the state in 2011, they’re taking stock for the first time of the effect climate-mitigation efforts may have had. Flooding in Vermont triggered by several days of heavy rainfall last week caused “catastrophic damage” to infrastructure statewide,

The state of Florida has paid down $400 million of the state’s liabilities through its new Debt Reduction Program, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday, saying the move saved taxpayers millions of dollars. In June, DeSantis signed the $116.5 billion budget for fiscal 2023–24, which established the debt reduction program within the Division of Bond Finance.

Municipals continued to improve Tuesday in constructive secondary trading while a retail pricing of $950 million for the New York City Transitional Finance Authority took focus in the primary. U.S. Treasuries were slightly firmer out long and equities rallied. Triple-A yields fell up to four basis points, depending on the curve, while U.S. Treasuries were

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava presented her proposed $11.7 billion fiscal 2023-2024 budget, featuring tax cuts, on Monday. “With this year’s budget, we’re creating a more future-ready Miami-Dade — building for today and investing in tomorrow,” Levine Cava said. “With this fiscally smart, compassionate budget, we’re investing in our residents’ needs today and building

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson Friday signed into law a 2% municipal sales tax rate, marking the end of a long-fought battle to shore up the city’s ailing finances, which have been hit by rising pension costs. “We’ve accomplished something huge, something major, something extraordinary for our city,” Johnson, surrounded by local and state officials in

Fitch Ratings raised the rating on about $1.25 billion of outstanding Kansas Department of Transportation highway revenue bonds to AA with a stable outlook from AA-minus, citing solid credit attributes. The upgrade “reflects the steady performance of the pledged revenue stream throughout the pandemic, growth in KDOT’s available fund balances, and improvements in the underlying

The Environmental Protection Agency announced two national competitions funded with $20 billion of grant money aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions primarily in underserved areas. The funds will flow through what the EPA called “national financing institutions” that function as green banks. The EPA also promotes the use of munis and green bonds for clean energy

Owners of some defaulted revenue bonds issued in 2018 for a senior living community in Plano, Texas, reached a binding settlement with the project’s bankrupt owner that calls for the re-issuance of debt. The agreement involves nearly $57.3 million of Series A and B senior bonds sold through the New Hope Cultural Education Facilities Finance

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed proposed amendments to Rule G-3 on professional qualifications with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would add an exemption for municipal advisors currently forced to requalify their registration after a two-year lapse in their Series 50 exams. The rule amendments make it so that those who have experienced

Municipals were slightly firmer to start off the week as a larger new-issue calendar looms, while U.S. Treasury yields fell and equities ended the session up. Triple-A yields fell one to two basis points while UST fell two to three. Munis started off last week at “extremely rich valuations throughout most of the curve after

A group of Wall Street banks are set to avoid a long-awaited trial in Illinois over charges of inflating interest rates on the state’s variable-rate debt after a Cook County judge Monday granted the banks’ motion to vacate the trial in light of a proposed settlement with the state. The deal may not be done

This month, the seven-member Puerto Rico Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), which was created by Congress in 2016 and tasked with restructuring the island’s debts, was poised to achieve a significant milestone. Ending bankruptcy at PREPA, Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, is the last remaining step in the restructuring of Puerto Rico’s debts, and

Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) snagged two rating upgrades ahead of its upcoming trip into the municipal bond market to continue financing a $5.135 billion project to replace its facilities. The $429 million of general airport revenue bonds scheduled to price Wednesday through BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan will mark the fourth debt sale

Growing indicators suggest bonds from assisted living facilities and nursing homes may show increasing defaults in the coming months. Through the first six months of 2023, Municipal Market Analytics’ Default Trends found that 4.17% of all retirement sector par became impaired, compared to 3.09% of the sector’s par that became impaired in all of 2022.

Desert Community College District in California saw its general obligation rating upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service by one notch to Aa1 affecting $511.5 million of debt. The outlook was revised to stable from positive. The upgrade “reflects the district’s large and growing tax base and improving financial position,” Moody’s analysts wrote in Monday’s report. The