Bonds

Minneapolis has earned an upgrade to Aaa from Moody’s Ratings, bringing it to triple-A status with Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings.Bloomberg News Moody’s Ratings upgraded Minneapolis to Aaa from Aa1, bringing the city the triple-A triple crown. The outlook is stable, reflecting an expectation that the city’s strong financial profile will help it

Chicago Public Schools’ Northside College Prep High School. The district’s Board of Education ousted its CEO, Pedro Martinez, in a heated special meeting Friday. Bloomberg News Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked Board of Education unanimously approved the firing of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez late Friday in a heated special meeting. S&P Global Ratings

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has consistently defended the fiscal guardrails he inherited when he first won the office in 2018.Bloomberg News Connecticut’s “fiscal guardrails,” a 2017 set of budget reforms, have a pretty big reputation, as budget policies go.  The guardrails, placed in the state’s bond covenants, forced the state to pay down billions of

<img src=”https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/20893870/thumbnail” width=”100%” alt=”chart visualization” /> Municipals saw a stronger tone after U.S. Treasuries improved on a slightly lower-than-expected inflation print while equities made gains to close out a volatile week. “This month’s inflation print is quite benign, but does it even matter? The bottom-line is another one or two months of benign inflation prints will

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Silver Point Capital in a federal court in Connecticut on Friday.Bloomberg News The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Silver Point Capital, L.P. with breaches of nonpublic information federal laws with regards to Puerto Rico bonds. The SEC filed its case in the U.S. District Court for

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. The Republican on Friday lauded Wells Fargo’s move to leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, ending a review by his office that could have led to the bank being banned from underwriting state and local government bonds.Bloomberg News Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Palomar Health’s continuing financial woes caused Fitch to push its ratings further into junk territory.Palomar Health The ratings of troubled Palomar Health, an Escondido-based two-hospital system, took another hit this week, falling further down the Fitch Ratings junk scale as its financial situation worsened. In a Wednesday report, Fitch cited a “significant cyber event that

“The whole goal of the bond fund was, ‘how can we further extend economic development,’ said Craig Teamer, director of finance and special projects for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. ”If you’re looking to amplify some additional investment in economic development, a bond fund could be considered, and it’s also could be a revenue stream. There

A California hospital during the pandemic in early 2021. Hospital sector recovery from COVID-19 may be turned around by Medicaid cuts under Trump, industry analysts say.Bloomberg News If President-elect Trump’s ideas for healthcare move forward, California’s budget as well its hospitals are likely to face challenges. The Golden State wouldn’t be alone, as the proposed changes

Peter Orr is joining Sycamore Advisors as senior managing director.Sycamore Advisors Indianapolis-based Sycamore Advisors is building its quantitative muscle with two new municipal finance hires.  Peter Orr joins the municipal advisory firm as senior managing director and Ching Yin as senior vice president. Areas of focus will include analytical tools and quantitative modeling. Both are based

<img src=”https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/20879380/thumbnail” width=”100%” alt=”chart visualization” /> Municipals sold off Thursday, playing catch up to the U.S. Treasury’s extended rout across most of the curve. Equities ended mixed as all markets further digested macroeconomic uncertainty and volatile policy swings coming out of Washington. Muni yields rose 12 to 19 basis points, depending on the scale, while

Bellarmine University had very weak debt service coverage levels in the last three fiscal years, Moody’s Ratings said.AdobeStock Bellarmine University was downgraded to B1 from Ba3 by Moody’s Ratings, affecting about $60 million of outstanding debt. The outlook is negative. The downgrade on the Kentucky-based school stemmed from declining enrollment, persistent use of reserves, and

Moody’s Ratings does not rate Clyde, Texas, but it highlighted the city’s recent default in a report this week.Bloomberg News A small Texas city struggling with water scarcity disclosed this month that it took out a high-interest, short-term loan to repay companies that insured defaulted certificates of obligation. Clyde, a city of less than 4,000

“We hope that there will be some kind of resolution that Speaker Johnson can find between the wider variety of parties that are now entering the conversation of funding the federal government,” said Emily Brock, director of the federal liaison center at the Government Finance Officers Association.  GFOA The continuing resolution deal to keep the government

A recent hack of a Michigan township should spur the the public finance industry to better understand and prepare for cybersecurity threats as hackers become more sophisticated. It also signals the industry needs a unified approach to disclosing those threats and to prepare for a higher price tag of insuring against them. White Lake Charter

A house with rooftop solar panels. Florida PACE Funding Agency, which finances installation of solar panels, is defending a $5 billion bond validation.Adobe Stock A Florida agency that offers PACE financing to property owners is at the center of a legal dispute that it says could catastrophically undermine the finality of all Florida bond validations.

<img src=”https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/20863349/thumbnail” width=”100%” alt=”chart visualization” /> Municipals lost more ground Wednesday, but outperformed a selloff in the U.S. Treasury market, after the Federal Open Market Committee signaled fewer rate cuts on the horizon, with a likely pause in January. Equities also sold off, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting a 10-day losing streak, the

Robert McDermott, the former Philadelphia budget director, has joined PFM as a director for its workforce consulting team. PFM Robert McDermott, the former Philadelphia budget director, has joined PFM as a director for its workforce consulting team.  McDermott is the latest veteran of Philadelphia’s finance department to join PFM, part of the firm’s ongoing strategy to

After the Pinellas County Commission approved bonds to help fu nda replacement for Tropicana Field, the team resurfaced a demand for more money, which had previously been rejected.Bloomberg News After the Pinellas County Commission approved $312 million of bonds to help finance construction of a professional baseball stadium, an old obstacle to the deal reappeared,

“The RFK Stadium bill is a win-win for the federal and D.C. governments,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. ”It would allow D.C. to transform the crumbling, long-vacant campus from acres of asphalt to a complex focused on community sports, recreation, park space and cultural amenities. Additionally, this bill would allow D.C. to create a mixed-used development

“I think the update does try to capture some of the new trends and how the industry has evolved,” said Dan Aschenbach, owner of AGVP Advisory and an author of a new NFMA paper on recommended best practices in disclosure for public power agencies and utilities.Dan Aschenbach Investors in public power bonds are looking for