Bonds

Arizona should be able to tackle a growing shortfall given the state’s improved reserves, low debt burden, and budget flexibility, Moody’s Investors Service said this week.  The state’s general fund faces projected shortfalls of $835 million in fiscal 2024 and nearly $879 million in fiscal 2025, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee’s latest projections,

Close on the heels of a $3 billion federal grant, the U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday allocated $2.5 billion in private activity bonds authority for the Brightline West High-Speed Intercity rail project between Las Vegas and southern California. The DOT in 2020 allocated $1 billion in private activity bonds to Brightline, which issued the debt

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bondholder parties defended their liens on the authority’s revenues in recent court filings, arguing the original trust agreement lays out their claims and a statement from PREPA’s own chief financial officer confirms them. Assured Guaranty, PREPA Ad Hoc Group, bond trustee U.S. Bank NA, and Syncora Guarantee and GoldenTree Asset

Denver Health, Colorado’s sole safety net healthcare provider, is nearing a breaking point as an influx of migrants adds to escalating uncompensated care costs.  The health system has received no reimbursement for treating 8,000 migrants in 20,000 visits, Donna Lynne, its CEO, told the Denver City Council’s Finance & Governance Committee this month.  “While I

Municipals were mixed Monday ahead of a heavy new-issue slate while U.S. Treasuries were better and equities saw smaller gains after last week’s record-breaking moves. Munis continue to struggle in 2024, with the asset class seeing negative returns of 1.01% so far this year. This is a turnaround “from the last quarter of 2023 in

A California plan to build a tunnel for freshwater to bypass the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta has run into a legal obstacle. A Sacramento County Superior Court judge has denied the California Department of Water Resources request to validate $16 billion in bonds to finance the Delta Conveyance Project. The Delta tunnel project would divert

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is currently wrestling with adding AI to its EMMA system in preparation for a machine readable future for financial disclosure.    “Last year, we received almost 12,000 primary market submissions from you, mostly in the form of official statements,” MSRB CEO Mark Kim told the Government Finance Officers Association’s Debt Committee.

Allan Katz has been named chief financial officer at Siebert Williams Shank, the firm announced on Monday. Katz comes to Siebert from Guggenheim Securities, where he was also CFO. Katz is well known for guiding operational improvement and expense control in the financial services sector, the firm said.  Guggenheim Securities is a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer. Katz was there

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Brad Brooks, former chief compliance officer for Titan Securities for misrepresentations and omissions in connection with two municipal securities related private placements, as well as Rockefeller Financial for its failure to disclose certain mark-ups and mark-downs in municipal securities transactions. FINRA handed down the penalties in two separate

The top bond counsel in 2023 handled a combined $361.721 billion across 7,164 bond issues versus $359.189 billion in 7,882 transactions in 2022.  The top 10 bond counsel, which welcomed three newcomers, accounted for $168.232 billion across 2,118 issues in 2023. The additions, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Ruth, Bracewell and Gilmore & Bell, knocked Chapman

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded New York University Langone Hospitals’ $3.2 billion of outstanding revenue bonds to A1 from A2 and revised the outlook to stable from positive. “The upgrade reflects an expected continuation of very strong and consistent operating performance and revenue growth relative to peers, driven by NYULH’s very strong market position and highly

The budget proposed last week by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shows fiscal discipline, analysts said, noting that the spending plan takes advantage of New York’s strong economic position to prepare for the future while still leaving some long-term questions unanswered. Her fiscal 2025 budget plan asks the state Legislature for $233 billion of all-funds

Municipal bonds were slightly weaker Friday ahead of an $8.4 billion new-issue calendar and the last full week of January. U.S. Treasuries were mixed on the day while equities saw another session of gains as markets continue to digest the unlikelihood of any Federal Reserve rate cuts in the first quarter. Triple-A yields rose two

A trial over Missouri’s first-of-their-kind ESG investment rules will go ahead after a federal judge this month rejected the state’s motion to dismiss. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association sued the Show Me State last August over a pair of four-month-old anti-environmental, social and governance securities rules. The measures require advisors and broker-dealers to

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority staff came under fire from their own auditor general for misleading communications and a “breach of transparency” regarding cost overruns and delays on the $12.2 billion San Jose extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. The project would extend BART, a commuter railway, through downtown San Jose into Santa

The Illinois Supreme Court Friday upheld pension consolidation legislation championed by Gov. JB Pritzker that was challenged in court by more than a dozen suburban and downstate police and firefighter pension funds.  The case, Arlington Heights Police Pension Fund et al. v. JB Pritzker et al., had pitted the governor and General Assembly against a

Federal transportation and housing funding will continue to flow until early March after Congress late Thursday passed a short-term appropriations bill a day ahead of a partial government shutdown. “There will not be a shutdown on Friday,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Because both sides have worked together, the government will stay open.

A Congress that just narrowly avoided a government shutdown is getting a fresh wish list from a wide cross section of organizations of issuers, including calls for preserving the tax exemption on municipal bonds.   The letter originates from the Public Finance Network, which encompasses twenty-four issuer organizations including the Government Finance Officers Association, the National

A private equity firm’s co-president and partner has been tapped to fill one of the two vacancies on the Puerto Rico Oversight Board. President Joe Biden said Thursday he will appoint Juan Sabater, a partner and co-president of Valor Equity Partners, to the seven-member board. “I look forward to working with Juan Sabater on our

William “Bill” Edward Laverty, 72, died in Vero Beach, Florida, Dec. 18, 2023. He died of natural causes several years after being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. Mr. Laverty spent most of his life living and working in New York City as a municipal bond underwriter for several Wall Street firms. Mr. Laverty worked as a

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has put out a request for competitive sealed proposals from financial advisory firms as it gears up for several major capital projects. The RFP aims to forge a multi-year, multi-issuance agreement for services around debt issuance, debt refinancing, debt reporting and other financial market-related work. Proposals are due no later than