Rejecting bondholders’ position that they are entitled to full recovery, District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain set procedures for estimating bondholder claims in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bankruptcy case and deadlines shorter than requested. The parties should engage in a “true estimation process, not a protracted trial to establish a precise computation of
Bonds
A New York judge has ordered an affiliate to the owner of the American Dream Mall to pay $389 million to a group of junior lenders. New York Supreme Court Judge Andrew Borrock this week granted a summary judgment to a group of the mall’s private financers, who sued in February, alleging the mall failed
The ongoing effort in Congress to lift a controversial cap on the deduction that can be taken for state and local taxes began a new chapter on Friday as another bipartisan group of lawmakers began attempts to revive a bill very similar to one that failed to advance last session. Reps. Andrew Garbarino along with
A California bill that would restrict the state attorney general from imposing what the authors called “unreasonable, unworkable, and unnecessary conditions” on rural hospitals seeking to stay open by merging with, or selling to, another hospital was pulled from committee. Senate Bill 774, slated to be heard in the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday was
A coalition of nine states and two think-tanks have filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to take up Ohio’s challenge to Janet Yellen and the Treasury Department’s ban on using federal pandemic aid for tax cuts. The coalition is made up of representatives from Texas, Virginia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota,
As the New York State Legislature returns to work Monday, lawmakers face several challenges, most importantly negotiating an agreement on a state budget that’s already more than two weeks late. Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her $227 billion executive budget proposal for fiscal 2024 in February. Budget approval is required by the start of the state’s fiscal year on April
Buy-siders digesting the departure of Nuveen’s head of municipals John Miller from the high-yield market say they’re watching the new management’s approach to some of his largest and riskiest positions, and whether his exit will ease the concentration that characterized the market under his influence. “Talk about someone who defines a brand,” a buy-side source
Municipals were steady Thursday in secondary trading as investors turned their attention to a sizable new-issue slate distracting from a weaker U.S. Treasury market. Equities rallied. Outflows from municipal bond mutual funds intensified as Refinitiv Lipper reported $255.794 million was pulled from them as of Wednesday after $91.713 million of outflows the week prior. With
California legislation designed to alter transparency laws that have had a “chilling effect” on bond measure passage cleared its first hurdle. The Senate’s Governance and Finance Committee approved Senate Bill 532 by a 5-1 vote Wednesday, the bill will now move to the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who
The number of hospital consolidations for the first quarter still lags pre-COVID-19 pandemic first quarters but the revenue side of the equation rose to levels not seen since 2018. The first quarter saw 15 announced transactions that involve $12.4 billion of revenues, according to advisory firm Kaufman Hall’s quarterly look at not-for-profit and for-profit hospital
New York City’s economy is progressing, Upstate New York’s is sluggish and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ is struggling in a post-COVID world. Analysts with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York made these and other observations at a web conference Thursday morning on how Federal Reserve District 2’s economy has recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic
The Securities and Exchange Commission will host its Municipal Securities Disclosure Conference May 10, both in-person and virtual, where moderating staff from the Office of Municipal Securities will lead panelists through topics such as ESG, the Financial Data Transparency Act and voluntary disclosure. The conference will be attended by SEC chairman Gary Gensler, Commissioners Hester
The Southern California Public Power Authority plans to price $700 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds to fund projects that support replacing coal-fired combustion at a Utah power plant with a new natural gas and hydrogen plant nearby. Lead manager Wells Fargo will hold a retail order period Tuesday, ahead of institutional pricing on Wednesday. Cabrera
They say the third time’s a charm — and that must be true in the Garden State, where for the third time in less than a week, New Jersey received a credit rating upgraded. S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday raised its long-term and underlying ratings on the state’s general obligation bonds to A from A-minus
Chicago’s revisions to its water and wastewater credit features drew an upgrade as the city prepares a nearly $1billion sale of water and wastewater revenue bonds next month ahead of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handover of power to Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson. S&P Global Ratings lifted the rating on the second lien for both enterprise systems to
Municipals were firmer in trading Wednesday as triple-A benchmark yields fell along with U.S. Treasuries after the consumer price index report showed inflation slowing. Equities ended down after the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee signaled another rate hike is likely at its May meeting. The two-year muni-Treasury ratio was at 55%, the three-year at 56%,
Puerto Rico’s February general fund net revenues came in 13.1% above projections, but dropped 4% from February 2022, according to the Puerto Rico Treasury Department. February 2023 net revenues were $870 million. In the first eight months of the fiscal year — July to February — net revenues were up 17.2% compared to the Puerto
Muni leaders are digesting new approaches to solving pension fund challenges and monitoring warning signs, with recent evidence suggesting that there may be less cause for alarm than previously believed by many. Despite concerns about underfunded pension plans, a brief published on Tuesday by Louise Sheiner of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the
Federal Reserve policymakers scaled back their expectations for rate hikes this year after a series of bank collapses roiled markets last month, and stressed they would remain vigilant for the potential of a credit crunch to further slow the economy, a record of the meeting showed. “Many participants noted that the likely effects of recent
Alabama is betting a stake in its economic future on one of its oldest industries. Coal has long been a staple of the state’s economy and could continue to be as state and private sector partners move to phase out mining coal for power generation and raise production of the type of coal needed for
President Biden’s veto of a congressional resolution challenging his Environmental Protection Agency’s redefining of “waters of the United States,” sets up a larger battle to play out in the courts for his administration to uphold the rule that is now being challenged in over half the country. Efforts to define WOTUS and stretch the interpretation