Bonds

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

Siebert Williams Shank has formed a six-person quantitative solutions group to be headed by public finance industry veteran Giles Nicholson. Siebert said the hire highlights the firm’s steadfast and growing commitment to expand its public finance practice. “Hiring Giles along with other senior and experienced hires over the last year demonstrates our deep commitment to

Two public finance professionals helped craft legislation that added whole categories of residential care facilities to the list of borrowers eligible to issue debt through the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. Assembly Bill 839, authored by Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October, allows nonprofits that operate independent living,

Municipals were weaker Thursday amid another busy new-issue day while municipal bond mutual funds reported inflows. U.S. Treasuries yields rose and equities were up near the close. Muni yields rose up to eight basis points, depending on the scale, while UST yields rose up to six basis points at 30 years. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio

HilltopSecurities hired six former UBS professionals as part of a wider plan to expand its public finance footprint. “We remain committed to adding professionals nationwide to our public finance business who offer a full product solution set to their clients,” said Brad Winges, president of HilltopSecurities. “This is the first group of many hires that

A proposed bond-financed crude oil-transporting railway project in Utah lost a federal right-of-way permit in the wake of a 2023 court ruling. The U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday it withdrew a 2022 permit allowing the Uinta Basin Railway’s construction and operation on about 12 miles of land in the Ashley National Forest.  The federal agency

Cities and states dreading the implementation of standardized data under the Financial Data Transparency Act may end up enjoying market benefits like lower borrowing costs and elevated profiles among bond buyers who are increasingly looking for choice and customization. That’s the prediction from panelists participating Wednesday in a webinar hosted by XBRL US on how

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of Washington’s capital gains tax that took effect two years ago. In Quinn v. Washington, plaintiff Chris Quinn asked the high court to review and overturn the Washington State Supreme Court’s 7-2 March ruling that upheld the tax. The high court

Like some other Midwestern states, Ohio faces twin threats to home affordability: climbing property taxes and real estate investment firms that buy up single-family homes only to rent them out at high rates.  So on Jan. 11, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine rolled out the Welcome Home Ohio program. A product of the Ohio legislature’s biennium

Jennifer Fredericks, a sales director at market data platform SOLVE, will lead Women in Public Finance’s board of directors in 2024, the organization recently announced. Women in Public Finance, a professional networking group for women working in the public finance sector, is about advancing women in sector, including helping them find jobs, putting together education

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board board of directors member Liz Sweeney has joined the Milken Institute as a senior fellow. Sweeney made the announcement on Tuesday and will continue her duties as president of Nutshell Associates while also serving the MSRB. “I’m delighted to be working with the public finance team at MI Finance,” she said.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is set to hold its second quarterly board meeting of FY 2024 on Jan. 24-25, and there members will discuss the comments they received as part of the 2024 rate card filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The board will also mull questions over whether to modernize Rule G-27

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. The top five bond financings in the ranking have an average dollar volume of more than $917 million. The top 20 bond financings have a cumulative amount of more than $11 billion. Scroll through to see which bond financings are in the

Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp’s proposed amended fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 budget includes spending some of the surplus revenue the state has taken in on capital projects rather than issuing bonds this year. The state is estimated to have about $11 billion in surplus cash in its coffers, according to the state Department of