Bonds

President Biden’s newly revised environmental permitting rules to implement his climate and environmental-justice agenda faced swift pushback from construction groups and Republicans who say it will delay critical infrastructure and drive up costs. The administration Tuesday released a final rule to revise the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, the rule that governs how it

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of expansive tax cut legislation barely fended off an override, which fell short by one vote in the Senate after easily passing the House.  House Bill 2036, which cleared the Republican-controlled legislature in April with hefty majority votes, included changes to income, sales, and property taxes that would result in

Ahead of an expected push to broaden tax-exempt financing authority for tribal governments next year, a pair of Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis economists are recommending the tax code be reformed to allow tribes greater access to the financing tool. An April 25 paper titled “Tax code constraints limit tribal tax-exempt bonding” notes the relatively

The California Treasurer’s office will relaunch its DebtWatch website on May 1, offering a more user-friendly format with vastly more data than the original 2015 version. The website’s software will allow investors, issuers and taxpayers to access all the data the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission gathers on bond issuance to allow them to

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Wednesday vetoed tax cut legislation that she called “too expensive” and offered lawmakers a less-costly alternative. The Democratic governor, who in January vetoed a previous tax reduction bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislation, said the latest measure “jeopardizes our state’s future fiscal stability.”    House Bill 2036, which cleared the House

The California Supreme Court has granted review of a case challenging retirement reforms state lawmakers approved 11 years ago, marking a return of pension spiking questions to the high court for the first time since a 2020 ruling on an Alameda County case. The new case — Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association v. Criminal Justice

The recently announced sale of the National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes and the team’s move to Utah could lead to bond issuances for arena projects in both states.  Under a plan approved by the NHL Board of Governors last week, the team, which had been unable to secure a permanent arena in Arizona, was sold

Local government officials in Texas are increasingly feeling the sting of 2021 state laws that banned big banks from underwriting municipal bonds for “boycotting” or “discriminating” against the fossil fuel or firearm industries. Several aired their grievances at The Bond Buyer’s Texas Public Finance conference in Austin last week, noting the impact of the laws,

Rockefeller Asset Management added three new portfolio managers to bolster its municipal investment strategies within in its fixed income division, the firm announced Monday. Scott Cottier, Mark DeMitry and Michael Camarella will join Rockefeller from Invesco, where they managed the California Value Municipal Income Trust and the Trust for Investment Grade New York Municipals. They

Healthy reserves and plans to increase permanent funds to mitigate revenue fluctuations earned Wyoming a positive outlook from S&P Global Ratings. S&P affirmed the state’s AA issuer credit rating, which now has a one-in-three chance of being upgraded over the next two years, as a result of the the positive outlook being elevated from stable,

A contentious rule proposal has a host of broker-dealer and investment firms calling for a rewrite as the effects on the municipal bond market portend calamity.  “Overall, we recommend that the rules in general be reconsidered and ideally rewritten,” said Susan Joyce, head of muni trading & FI market structure, AllianceBernstein. “We definitely see a

The Inflation Reduction Act has paved the way for broader participation in affordable housing and a renewed focus by developers on sustainability, panelists at Baker Tilly’s 2024 DevelUP conference said this week. One panelist called the 2022 law “the largest opportunity to build foundational generational wealth that you will experience,” and others praised the tax

On Tuesday, global law firm Nixon Peabody LLP released the names of newly minted partners and counsels who have arrived at the next level in their public finance career.  According to the firm, “Nearly 80% of the new partners are members of historically underrepresented groups at the partnership level in the legal profession, which aligns

When it comes to issuing municipal bonds in Louisiana, state Treasurer John Fleming like things just the way they are. Fleming is pushing back against a proposal in the state Legislature that would make changes to the way the state Bond Commission oversees the issuance of debt by cities, counties and local governments and entities.

Norton Rose Fulbright has hired public-private partnership and infrastructure attorney Patrick Harder to co-head the firm’s U.S. and North America infrastructure groups. Harder joins Norton Rose after 20 years at Nossaman LLP, where he was a leader in the U.S. P3 space and was partner and chair of the infrastructure group. He will co-chair Norton’s

President Joe Biden signaled tentative federal support for a long-struggling high-speed train between Dallas and Houston using Japanese technology during a meeting last week with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Opponents of the controversial proposal, meanwhile, have urged the Department of Justice to investigate the project’s owner, Texas Central Partners LLC, for violations of the

A small Kansas city took the initial step last week that could lead to the issuance of sales tax and revenue (STAR) bonds for a development featuring a Mattel toy-themed amusement park. The proposal came before the Bonner Springs City Council in the wake of the first-ever default on STAR bonds in the state and

Florida is coming to market early this week with a $1.5 billion taxable bond sale to bulk up the state’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. The State Board of Administration Finance Corp. is planning to issue $1.5 billion of taxable revenue bonds in two maturities. “We convened with the underwriting group today and signed off on what

Municipals were mixed Thursday in secondary trading as focus shifted to California’s nearly $1.5 billion of tax-exempt and taxable general obligation bond deals in the competitive market while U.S. Treasuries were weaker out long after Wednesday’s short-end selloff and equities were in the black at the close. Triple-A yield curves saw a mix of bumps

Municipals were weaker, but outperformed a large U.S. Treasury selloff that hit the short end the hardest and pushed the 10-year well over 4.5% after a hot inflation report showed Fed rate cuts would be pushed further out. Equities sold off as well. “The news is sparking an equity market selloff while sending bond yields