Bonds

Local governments have a new legal advocate in cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Government Finance Officers Association has joined with the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties and the International Municipal Lawyers Association to form the Local Government Legal Center, which will promote local government priorities before the nation’s top

York County, South Carolina, priced $24.6 million of revenue bonds Wednesday to recoup costs incurred by the county to take over of a private water utility operation. The proceeds will cover a portion of the $36 million price tag York County paid to take over private firm Blue Granite Water’s water utility operations in the

The struggle to provide affordable housing and its effect on the bond market is raising a mixture of hope and concerns from experts, especially in certain sub-sectors. “We have seen pressure in the stand-alone rental sector,” said Marian Zucker, sector lead on the S&P Global Ratings U.S. public finance team. “During the pandemic, age-restricted properties

Roger Millar, AASHTO’s new president and chief of Washington’s Department of Transportation, joins Caitlin Devitt to talk about the rollout of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, how a tight labor market and inflation are impacting capital plans, what a divided Congress means for transportation and an update on the Pacific Northwest’s high speed rail project. (24

A new Biden administration definition of federal waters threatens to delay transportation infrastructure projects across the country, a top construction lobbyist and other industry groups warned after filing a lawsuit seeking to overturn the rule. The Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 18 published a revised rule that redefines so-called waters of the United States, or

Connecticut’s surplus projection for the current fiscal year received a $324.7 million boost. The Connecticut Office for Policy and Budget Management’s recently announced forecast for fiscal 2023, which runs through June, projects general fund revenue of $23.2 billion. Compared to December’s projections, revenues are up $265.3 million and expenses are down $59.4 million. That $324.7

For the first time in more than a decade, Texas public school districts are heading to the municipal market to sell bonds without a cost-saving state credit enhancement. Due to shrinking available capacity in the Permanent School Fund’s bond guarantee program, districts are being denied a triple-A-rated boost for their bonds, forcing them to issue

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said roughly $2 trillion of reserves could be taken out of the banking system without disrupting banks. Waller discussed monetary policy and his views on the economy during an hourlong event Friday afternoon hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. During the event, he said the Fed could reduce its

Bondholders controlling more than two-thirds of the $180 million outstanding Puerto Rico Industrial Development Co. bonds filed suit against the Puerto Rico Oversight Board and the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority seeking full payment. Affiliates of GoldenTree Asset Management LP complained that PRIDCO’s bonds have not paid since the passage of the Puerto Rico

A suburban Chicago hotel and conference center working to get back on track from COVID-19-induced operating struggles made a partial payment on overdue interest owed to some holders of $142 million of restructured bonds. Breathing room still remains through this year for the Westin hotel and conference center complex in Lombard from a bondholder-provided loan

Municipals were weaker in spots Friday, outperforming a U.S. Treasury selloff, while equities ended up. The three-year muni-UST ratio was at 55%, the five-year at 58%, the 10-year at 64% and the 30-year at 87%, according to Refinitiv MMD’s 3 p.m. ET read. ICE Data Services had the three at 55%, the five at 59%,

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority approved a contract Thursday with a consortium to run its electric generating facilities, despite observers raising some concerns about one member of the group. The consortium, Genera PR, would include New Fortress Energy, the El Nuevo Día and El Vocero web sites reported. New Fortress is a liquified natural

The nonprofit developer of a massive participant sports venue in Arizona missed its January bond payment — by a mile. Legacy Cares, which built the Bell Bank Park venue in Mesa, was due to make a $10.3 million interest payment Jan. 1, but only had $2.68 million in the bond fund, according to a disclosure

Minnesota-based Fairview Health Services lost its A-level rating from Moody’s Investors Service and could fall further on the credit scale as it copes with worsening operating struggles that began before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moody’s lowered the rating Wednesday to Baa1 from A3 and assigned a negative outlook. Further downgrades raises the risk that Fairview — which

Citigroup will no longer be allowed to underwrite bonds issued by state and local government entities in Texas after the attorney general’s office determined the investment bank’s firearms policy runs afoul of a 2021 state law. A notice to bond counsel said the Texas attorney general will not approve any public security issued as of

Growth in U.S. prices is expected to ease in the year ahead, contacts surveyed in the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book said. “Selling prices increased at a modest or moderate pace in most districts, though many said that the pace of increases had slowed from that of recent reporting periods,” the Fed said Wednesday in

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s proposed amendments to Rule G-32 on primary offering disclosures, which would alter the timing and submission of data on Form G-32 is being welcomed by market participants for its efforts in streamlining the submission process and bringing NIIDS-eligible and non-NIIDS eligible transactions under one submission timeline. Underwriters welcomed the proposed

Chicago’s Sales Tax Securitization Corp. will take retail orders Wednesday on a long-planned issue that prioritizes local buyers on the city’s first bonds to carry a social bond designation and gives special consideration for environmental, social, and governance investors. The STSC offers $305.3 million of tax-exempt paper in three series — including $98 million of

2022 was either a year to forget or a year to remember for a very long time, depending on your perspective. On one side, investors would want to erase from their memory last year’s historically poor market performance, the weakest in decades. Institutional investors would bemoan the massive fund outflows all year long. On the

Muni leaders are airing disagreements and concerns about the Financial Data Transparency Act and other recent developments, highlighting some long-simmering tensions over how issuers disclose information to the market. The multi-pronged discussion on FDTA and other hot topics occurred Thursday at the Richard Ravitch Public Finance Initiative Launch Symposium sponsored by the Volcker Alliance and