Bonds

Michigan’s new budget package provides an $11 million lifeline that will stave off the looming closure of Sturgis Hospital as it works on a long-term fix for its weakened fiscal health that left the city on the hook to cover a recent lease payment related to debt service. The City of Sturgis Building Authority in

Rising inflation and falling stock prices are getting ready to take a big bite out of the Big Apple’s economic recovery. According to a report released this week by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, June’s personal income tax data are showing the effects the sagging stock market and volatile bond market are having on

The stock market decline of 2022 is projected to push the unfunded liabilities of state-run pension systems to $1.3 trillion for the fiscal year, according to a Reason Foundation analysis. The steps taken by states to bolster pension funds by lowering anticipated return rates during boom years combined with record-setting investment returns in 2021 isn’t

Municipals were little changed to close out the week, while U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly and equities rallied. Muni to UST ratios were at 65% in five years, 83% in 10 years and 96% in 30 years, according to Refinitiv MMD’s 3 p.m. read. ICE Data Services had the five at 64%, the 10 at

Next week’s planned sale of $2.7 billion of taxable business-tax backed special obligation revenue bonds by Massachusetts is being postponed as state lawmakers negotiate a bill that could affect the plan. A bill was introduced earlier this week, according to a notice from Jefferies LLC and BofA Securities, joint book-running senior managers for the deal,

U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., submitted a bill Friday for a binding plebiscite on Puerto Rico’s political status, but its chances of passage are slim. The bill would offer Puerto Rico voters three options: statehood, independence, and sovereignty in free association with the United States. The current status as a territory would not be offered.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has dealt President Biden and the Democrats’ Build Back Better bill a final blow, refusing to accept key tax and climate provisions and destroying any hope for reviving the muni market agenda before elections in November. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had been negotiating with fellow Democrat Manchin for

The Federal Reserve’s Inspector General said Chair Jerome Powell and former Vice Chair Richard Clarida’s trading activity had not broken any laws or rules, but the probe into the former heads of the Dallas and Boston regional Fed banks remained open. “We did not find evidence to substantiate the allegations that former Vice Chair Clarida

Santa Fe, New Mexico, city officials are fretting that a late fiscal 2021 financial audit could lead the state government to withhold state bond proceeds earmarked for city capital projects. The audited financials for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021, are seven months past a Dec. 15, 2021, due date in the latest

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said “everything is in play” for policy action after data showed that U.S. inflation accelerated again to a fresh four-decade high last month. “The top-line number is a source of concern,” Bostic told reporters Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Florida. “Everything is in play.” Asked if that included

Florida state government revenues surged in fiscal 2021-22, bringing its total budget surplus to a record high of $21.8 billion, more than 21% above previous forecasts, as its economy continued to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, collections came in $742 million above estimates with preliminary data for June showing revenue

Municipals were firmer in secondary trading and moved in lockstep with U.S. Treasuries while an active primary led by a large income tax revenue bond offering from the District of Columbia took focus. Equities ended in the red. Triple-A curves saw yields fall three to five basis points while UST moved three to six basis

A higher inflation, higher interest rate environment will exacerbate pension-related risks to investors in U.S. state and local government bonds, moving those risks back center stage for the municipal market as the direct impacts of the COVID pandemic ease. From a bondholder’s perspective, pension risk refers to the possibility that pension costs can grow to

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said the U.S. economy can cope with higher interest rates and repeated his support for another jumbo move when the central bank meets later this month. “Right now I’m pretty comfortable,” he told reporters in a conference call Monday. “I’m confident that the economy will be able

The District of Columbia is set to issue almost $1.5 billion of income tax-secured revenue bonds in a mixture of exempt, taxable and forward-delivery structures, coming into a market that recently has been favoring high-grade paper. BofA Securities as senior manager and Siebert Williams Shank as co-senior manager will price the $1.453 billion of tax-exempt

Massachusetts plans to bring $2.7 billion of taxable business-tax backed special obligation revenue bonds with a social designation, marking the largest environmental, social and governance deal to date in the municipal market. The deal is also one of the larger taxable deals in 2022 in a year that has seen a significant drop in taxable

Los Angeles International Airport received a $50 million grant from the federal infrastructure bill for terminal road improvements, among the largest dispersed from the $1 billion allocated to 85 airports nationally. The grants are the first allotment in a five-year, $5 billion airport terminal grant program funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Transportation

The Supreme Court decision in Carson v. Makin may render unconstitutional issuer statutes that prohibit the use of bond proceeds for religious purposes. The court ruled last month that if a state chooses to subsidize private education, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because of religious affiliation. The ruling could change the way some

Municipals were mixed to close out a quiet summer Friday session ahead of a larger new-issue calendar that sees several billion-dollar deals. Triple-A benchmark yields once again largely ignored a selloff in U.S. Treasuries after a robust jobs report indicated the Federal Reserve will likely hike interest rates another 75 basis points at its next

As Senate Democrats work to revive a reconciliation spending package, municipal bond lobbyists hope for a fresh opportunity to push through the federal muni agenda. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has reportedly been negotiating for weeks with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., about the terms of a spending package that would advance President Joe Biden’s agenda