Bonds

Milwaukee Public Schools is several months late in submitting the annual financial audit reports required by statute, and the delay has triggered a litany of consequences.  The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has withheld the district’s June 2024 Special Education Aid payment of $16,623,612. MPS Superintendent Keith Posley resigned last Tuesday. And Wisconsin Gov. Tony

In another sign of the sector’s recovery, airports are set to flock to the muni market this year as issuers can no longer postpone long-delayed projects and necessary infrastructure maintenance. Airport issuance got off to a slow start this year with only $3.5 billion priced through the end of May, according to Ramirez’s May airport

Municipals were steady Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting and Consumer Price Index report, as U.S. Treasury yields fell and equities were mixed near the close. “The market’s great expectations regarding Fed cuts have witnessed a dramatic downward adjustment since the start of the year,” said Vikram Rai, head of municipal markets

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s new amendments filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission don’t go far enough in addressing the supervisory concerns associated with investments bankers and other traders involved in public offerings and private placements. That view was collected as part of the MSRB’s amendments to Rule G-27 on supervision, which brings the

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 Bomb Buyer Podcast, your essential resource for insights into everything municipal finance. I’m Mike Scarchilli, Editor-in-Chief of the Bomb Buyer,

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. The top five bond financings in the rankings have an average dollar volume of more than $1.2 billion. The top 20 bond financings have a cumulative amount of more than $15 billion. Scroll through to see which bond financings are in the

With the Federal Open Market Committee unlikely to change the fed funds rate target at this week’s meeting, the markets will concentrate on the Summary of Economic Projections and whether it shows expectations reduced to one or two 25 basis point rate cuts this year from the three suggested by the previous dot plot. “Three

Oklahoma County was successful in getting voters to approve bonds to build a new jail to replace its troubled detention facility, but the question of where to locate it has stirred controversy and put debt issuance on hold. The county aims to replace its 13-story detention center in Oklahoma City, which opened in 1991, with

The Government Finance Officers Association’s Washington, D.C. team is hoping to plant the seeds of municipal market priorities during the summer ahead of this fall’s high-stakes national election so they blossom during next year’s major tax policy debate. “There’s a lot of activity happening now because of the election,” federal liaison Emily Brock told the

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief of the Office of Municipal Securities Dave Sanchez urged issuers and muni professionals to stay vigilant in a smorgasbord of areas that regulators are watching, from late audits to shady conduit deals to unregistered advisors in the public-private partnership space. “If you guys aren’t able to have this discipline

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority will “reprioritize and shrink” its capital plan and look to borrow more in the capital markets — likely at higher costs — now that Gov. Kathy Hochul hit the brakes on its toll revenues, MTA Chief Executive Officer Janno Lieber said. Lieber has had an “incredibly difficult week” since

The credit rating agencies are proposing changes to their criteria that could affect a wide swath of municipalities, which is causing issuers to scramble to keep up.   “There’s such a large volume of information coming from a lot of different sources,” said Emily Brock, director, federal liaison center, Government Finance Officers Association. “Are there changes,

Municipals were little changed Monday as investors await a smaller calendar amid an FOMC week, outperforming Treasuries, which saw small losses, while equities were up near the close. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio Monday was at 65%, the three-year at 65%, the five-year at 66%, the 10-year at 65% and the 30-year at 82%, according to

The U.S. Virgin Islands government has hired Ernst & Young to assist financially troubled Water and Power Authority in returning to fiscal health. Earlier this year the Virgin Islands Senate directed hiring a “turnaround company” for the utility and last week the Public Finance Authority selected E&Y from the four finalists. Within 120 days EY

S&P Global Ratings upgraded the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority’s senior-lien airports facilities bonds to AA from AA-minus with a stable outlook Friday, citing Orlando International Airport’s growing enplanement counts. “The upgrade reflects Orlando International Airport’s very high activity levels and long history of favorable enplanement trends supported by serving an expanding service area economy with

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority had installed the toll gantries. It had finalized the environmental reviews. It had budgeted $15 billion of capital projects counting on revenues from congestion pricing. But New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proved Wednesday that congestion pricing still wasn’t safe. Hochul directed the MTA to halt congestion pricing and asked

Tanya Garost, the incoming president of the Government Finance Officers Association who has more than two decades of experience in Canadian public finance, said local governments on both sides of the border share more similarities than differences — especially when it comes to their challenges. “We are facing a lot of the same issues: polarizing

The troubled history of Build America Bonds is coming to a head as municipalities weigh tough choices over redeeming the bonds that have lost their appeal to issuers because of their administrative headache, reduced subsidy rate, and the current high interest rate environment. “Every official statement is different,” said Emily Brock, director, federal liaison center

Cities, states and towns will get their first, long-awaited glimpse of a controversial new data standards law in a few weeks. The Securities and Exchange Commission and federal agencies are set to release a joint Notice for Comment by June 28 for the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022. The notice marks the first of

Municipals saw losses but outperformed a U.S. Treasury selloff sparked by better-than-expected jobs data while a much smaller primary slate awaits investors ahead of the June Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The non-farm payrolls data further raises concerns over the timing of the Central Bank’s rate cutting schedule. “This blockbuster NFP makes it harder for

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on has signed Illinois’ $53.1 billion fiscal year 2025 budget, which includes $198 million for the state’s rainy day fund and $182 million for the migrant crisis as well as creating a Department of Early Childhood and an innovation center at the University of Illinois-Springfield and funding the new state-based insurance marketplace.