Bonds

Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ, his office and his chief of staff were sued alleging they withheld documents related to the state’s anti-ESG law. Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ, his office and his chief of staff and deputy treasurer, Jordan Harvey, were sued last week by an open-records company that accused them of withholding and possibly destroying

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said that while progress on lowering inflation had resumed in recent months, officials aren’t yet ready to declare their mission accomplished.  “We have made good progress, but inflation is still running above the FOMC’s 2% objective,” Hammack said Thursday, referring to the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

State and local governments in the West, Southwest and Southeast are leading the pack in economic growth as some analysts are seeing good times for the municipal bond market.  “We’ve had $40 billion monthly in new issue calendars for the last seven months in 2024,” said Tom Schuette, senior vice president and investment grade credit

Oklahoma would open the door to the creation of bond-issuing public infrastructure districts if voters approve a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot. State question 833 would allow property owners to petition their municipality to create a PID as a way to finance roads, sidewalks, parks, and water and sewer services through 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 Bond Buyer Podcast, your essential resource for insights into everything municipal finance. I’m Mike Scarchilli, Editor-in-Chief of The Bond

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

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

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

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.

A Utah judge voided a proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot that raised concerns about future state funding for K-12 public schools. If passed by voters, Amendment A would have provided more flexibility for Utah’s budget by tapping excess income tax revenue currently constitutionally earmarked mainly for public education. Utah Third District

The Biden administration Tuesday announced the strictest-ever safe drinking water rule that will require almost all cities to replace their toxic lead pipes within the next 10 years. “Folks, what is a government for if it cannot protect the public health?” Biden asked a crowd Tuesday in Milwaukee, where he announced the rule. The  Lead

Marin General Hospital’s outlook was revised to positive from stable by Fitch Ratings, affecting $211 million in debt. The positive outlook reflects Fitch’s opinion the Greenbrae, California-based facility should continue to make additional progress over the next 12 months-24 months in improving efficiency and other operational measures, according to Monday’s ratings report. Those improvements are

The District of Columbia is saddled with slowed jobs and economic growth, but has still managed to score a boost in five credit ratings from Moody’s Ratings. “Moody’s upgrades are a testament to the district’s solid financial management and strong economic fundamentals,” said Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee.  “We are extremely pleased by this recognition

Moody’s upgraded Pennsylvania’s issuer default rating to Aa2 from Aa3 Monday, ahead of the commonwealth’s plans to sell at least $1.4 billion of general obligation bonds.  The Keystone State is now at its highest rating since 2013, before the state’s finances were mired by partisan conflict between and among the two houses of the legislature

Texas Capital is expanding its public finance team with the addition of five industry professionals, the Dallas-based financial services firm announced Friday. The public finance business was launched in May with the hiring of Steve Genyk, a former public finance head at UBS, as a managing director. The move came as the ranks of underwriters

Moody’s Ratings upgraded $3.02 billion in Miami-Dade County transit bonds to Aa2 from A1 and convention development tax bonds to Aa3 from A2 on Thursday. The broad nature of the revenue pledge and strong 2.4 times maximum annual debt service coverage supported the upgrade, the agency said. The revenues have had limited volatility and a

The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank board of directors approved $26 million in loan financing for the city of Santa Cruz for two wastewater improvement system projects, IBank officials said Thursday. The funding will help the city replace and upgrade decades-old equipment with the aim of preventing costly repairs, protecting pipelines from corrosion, improving

There were many “trailblazers” at the Muni Pride LGBTQ+ History Month Social Mixer, Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell said in his speech at the event.  “Even if you aren’t a first, say, for your profession, or a first in your organization, the worlds of finance and law and government have not always been the best when

The California School Boards Association is suing the state over a Proposition 98 work-around included as a trailer bill in the budget. Proposition 98, often referenced throughout California’s state budget process, constitutionally mandates the state to allocate a certain percentage of the state budget to education each year. The 2024 Education Omnibus Budget Trailer Bill,

Massachusetts plans to sell $490.7 million of municipal bonds to help fund improvements for its commuter rail and other transportation projects throughout the state. The bonds are scheduled to price Wednesday after a retail order period Tuesday, according to an online investor presentation. According to preliminary bond documents, the deal consists of three series: a