Bonds

Broward County, Florida’s Tourism Development Tax, sales tax, and Professional Sports Facilities tax and revenue refunding bonds were upgraded by Moody’s Ratings, affecting about $628 million in bonds. Moody’s upgraded the county’s TDT revenue bonds, Series 2021 (Convention Center Expansion Project) to Aa2 from Aa3; sales tax bonds, Series 2020, to Aaa from Aa1; and

As funding from the American Rescue Plan Act peters out, cites are balancing reserves and issuing new debt while searching for funding streams.  “Our biggest challenge is not the replacement of the ARPA funds, it’s rather how are we going to pay for the future debt, for the amount of infrastructure debt we have facing

The public private partnership that took over Puerto Rico toll roads out of the territory’s bankruptcy is gearing up to sell municipal debt for the enterprise. The Wisconsin-based Public Finance Authority will be pricing the $286.2 million in senior revenue bonds on behalf of Puerto Rico Tollroads, LLC. Barclays is an underwriter. Fitch Ratings rates

Houston Mayor John Whitmire took aim Thursday at city Controller Chris Hollins for soliciting sponsorships from municipal bond firms for an upcoming investor conference, saying it smacks of pay-to-play and calling for an investigation. The mayor said he received calls from bond underwriting firms about sponsorships for Tuesday’s event with price tags ranging from $10,000

Bloomberg News Where California goes, the nation follows, the saying goes, and it appears to be true when it comes to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The nation’s largest public pension fund had $502.9 billion in assets under management at the end of fiscal 2024, it announced in a July news release. A preliminary

A stalwart municipal market veteran, devoted friend, and beloved husband and father, George C. Mulry III, a managing director in public finance marketing at Assured Guaranty, died on Oct. 9. He was 64 years old. Mulry is remembered for the lives he touched and his unimpeachable work ethic. He spent nearly 40 years in the

Municipals were little changed Thursday as muni mutual funds saw inflows come in strong and another busy day in the primary market, led by an upsized $3.2 billion of transportation bonds from the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority. U.S. Treasuries were weaker, with the greatest losses out long, and equities ended up. The two-year

Transcription: Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record.  Mike Scarchilli (00:04): Hi everyone and welcome to The Bond Buyer Podcast, your essential resource for insights into everything municipal finance. I’m Mike Scarchilli, Editor-in-Chief of The Bond

The case has closed on the yearslong lawsuit leveled by the Securities and Exchange Commission at Rochester, New York, and its former finance director Rosiland Brooks-Harris after a federal District Court Judge in the Western District of New York passed down a final judgment with no monetary penalty and no financial monitor. The c accepted

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will hold its first board meeting of the FY 2025 on Oct. 23-24, kicking off the new fiscal year with plans to discuss issuing a new request for information on the MSRB’s rate card and fee-setting process and potential modifications to it. The meeting will be the first under the

Moody’s Ratings on Tuesday put the Chicago Board of Education on notice that it will watch the school district’s next steps after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed a new school board. All seven previous board members resigned earlier this month. Moody’s said it will be monitoring whether and how those board changes factor into decisions

As the people in the path of Hurricanes Helene and Milton continue to dig out from the damage, the municipal bond market continues to assess the storms’ impact on public finance in the Southeast. Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Florida Panhandle Sept. 26 and tracked north, where it did its worst damage in the

Municipals were firmer Wednesday as muni mutual funds saw inflows top $2 billion and Pennsylvania led the new-issue calendar with $1.6 million of general obligation bonds in three series. U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly and equities ended up. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Wednesday was at 63%, the three-year at 62%, the five-year at 64%, the

The Hampton County School District in Varnville, South Carolina has won its dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over the tax exempt status of its Series 2010 $14 million general obligation bonds, preserving its tax-exempt status and incurring no fines. The school district received a letter this month from the IRS, stating that the IRS

California federal and state lawmakers broke ground for a 750-acre project to restore the Salton Sea that received $250 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act. The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly salt lake in Riverside and Imperial counties in southern California near the Mexican border. Funding for a series of projects, including

Housing advocates are pressing the House Committee on Ways and Means to pass long-simmering legislation that includes expanding the use of Private Activity Bonds to support affordable housing efforts.   “We remain hopeful there will be legislation in the lame duck session of Congress to enact these sorely-needed proposals, which would increase the housing credit allocation

Utah’s Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) will wrap up financing for its transition to cleaner fuels with a $114.6 million power supply revenue bond sale next week.  The deal comes after state lawmakers in June amended a 2024 law to keep Utah’s largest coal-fired power plant in operation to address IPA’s concerns it would put nearly

A little-noticed new program in Ohio’s capital budget is drawing attention after a nonprofit advocacy group called its grants to religious groups unconstitutional. The One Time Strategic Community Investment Fund forces taxpayers to support religious instruction, argues Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a 501(c)(3) devoted to the Establishment Clause of the First

Months after Minnesota’s second-largest healthcare employer was downgraded by two rating agencies, the Minnesota Nurses Association is taking aim at the management of Minneapolis-based Allina Health and arguing that Allina’s board should be composed of “largely bedside workers.” The union, which represents 22,000 nurses across Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Iowa, released a report on

Florida continues to work to reduce its debt load, offering a tender to holders of $1.4 billion of bonds, nearly 10% of its par outstanding, using its own cash without the sale of refunding bonds. Issuers have turned to tenders since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the tax-exempt advanced refunding option.

Municipals were little changed Tuesday as investors await a surge of new issuance to hit the market Wednesday and Thursday. U.S. Treasuries rallied out long and equities ended down. Two weeks into the fourth quarter of the year, munis are posting negative returns in October, down 0.56%, bringing year-to-date returns down to 1.72%, said Jason