Bonds

Broker-dealer groups support the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s proposal to amend its rules to stop requiring that dealers provide municipal securities disclosures to sophisticated customers and those not invested in municipals. Comment letters largely backing amendments came Monday in response to the MSRB’s May proposal. The changes to MSRB Rules G-10 on investor and municipal

California and Mexico lawmakers signed an agreement Monday on a project that will speed up the movement of goods and travelers at a San Diego County border crossing. The State Route 11/Otay Mesa East Port of Entry project being built at a combined cost of $738 million is expected to halve the amount of time

Just three days before the start of a new fiscal year, Arizona lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey have agreed on a $12.8 billion budget that includes what they call the largest tax cut in state history. “We achieved a tax cut that will protect working families and small businesses, we’re paying off hundreds of millions

Municipal securities dealer groups said Friday they are opposed to the creation of a $20 billion Infrastructure Financing Authority as part of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework announced Thursday. Other public finance groups have varying positions. National Association of Counties spokesman Paul Guequierre said in an email, “Counties support federal investments in infrastructure using

Municipals called it a summer Friday with the secondary lightly traded and benchmarks little changed, even as U.S. Treasury yields rose, munis took a break from the relative volatility since the FOMC meeting midmonth. After a week and change of underperformance to U.S. Treasuries, where ratios moved higher for the first time since early in

Puerto Rico’s government may soon adopt a 24% increase in the island’s minimum wage, with local observers saying it would raise costs for businesses and actually cut employment participation. On Tuesday the Puerto Rico Senate approved a bill raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour from the federal $7.25 per hour. The Puerto Rico

A California bill that would require cities and counties to post on their websites how much police brutality and misconduct lawsuits cost them annually is gaining momentum. Assembly Bill 603, authored by Assembly Member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, passed with a unanimous vote in the Assembly and is being heard July 5 in the Senate Committee

The Federal Reserve might consider an interest-rate hike from near zero as soon as late 2022 as the labor market reaches full employment and inflation is at the central bank’s goal, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said. “The criteria is that we have a sustainable inflation rate, that’s 2% or above, and

In Buffalo, about 400 miles away from New York City’s much-publicized mayoral primary, heavy political winds are blowing and they aren’t from any lake effect. India Walton, 38, a registered nurse and union activist, stands to become the first self-declared socialist to oversee a major American city since Milwaukee’s Frank Zeidler in 1960. Walton, an

Cook County, Illinois’ pandemic-driven fiscal wounds are on the mend with a surplus now expected this year and $121 million hole to close in 2022 that’s a shadow of last year’s $410 million gap. “It has been an exceptionally difficult last year but a combination of revenue bouncing back as the county opens up, federal

Hawaii lawmakers could be rewriting the state’s $31.2 billion biennium budget during a special session after Gov. David Ige signaled his intent to veto 28 bills. Some of the vetoes would leave holes in the budget. Fiscal bills Ige would scrap with line-item vetoes include one that would have used $314 million from the American

Illinois moved closer to winning an upgrade thanks to budgetary steps in the right direction and a rosier revenue trajectory that Fitch Ratings recognized in raising the state’s outlook to positive from negative. Fitch on Wednesday affirmed the state’s BBB-minus general obligation rating — still the lowest investment grade score — and the BBB-plus assigned

With ranked-choice voting making primary night a mere opening act and throwing the New York mayor’s race wide open, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams led Democratic candidates with 31% on Tuesday night. It could take weeks for the city’s Board of Elections to determine a winner. The new system allows voters to pick up to

Municipals saw some weakness and yield pressure on certain primary deals in repricings following an up and down U.S. Treasury market. Triple-A benchmark yields rose on bonds 10-years and out with one to two basis point cuts to scales. New issues saw a mixture of bumps and cuts on Tuesday, reflecting a general spread widening

Gov. Phil Murphy and top New Jersey legislative leaders have come to terms on key middle-class tax relief and property tax relief measures in the fiscal 2022 budget. The agreement, part of last year’s deal to enact a millionaire’s tax, essentally begins a slow rollout of an overall budget bill, whih could pass later this

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation had picked up but should move back toward the U.S. central bank’s 2% target once supply imbalances resolve. “Inflation has increased notably in recent months,” Powell said in written remarks prepared for his Tuesday testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, citing increases in oil

Philadelphia expects to come to market on Wednesday with a $359.5 million sale of Series 2021B federally taxable water and wastewater revenue refunding bonds. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Loop Capital Markets are lead managers for the sale, which will feature an advanced refunding of some Series 2014A and 2015A bonds. Fitch Ratings and S&P

Inflation risks may warrant the Federal Reserve beginning raising interest rates next year, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said, backing an even-earlier liftoff than penciled in by many of his colleagues. “I put us starting in late 2022,” Bullard said Friday during a TV interview on CNBC, referring to interest-rate projections published Wednesday by

A new opinion issued by the Justice Department says Puerto Rico’s admission as a state could legally include a transition period to temporarily continue the special bankruptcy provisions under PROMESA. That’s good news for the ongoing restructuring of the territory’s debt because it provides an assurance that statehood would not necessarily involve an abrupt dissolution

Municipal bond yields rose on the short end Friday as munis again played catch up to the moves in short U.S. Treasuries and investors became more aggressive in bid lists for high-grade paper. The UST note, 0.785% on Tuesday, touched 0.96% in the afternoon and was at 0.89% near the close Friday, leading to the

Illinois spread penalties narrowed this month to levels in line with its ratings for the first time in years as the state reaps the benefits of swelling tax revenues, federal cash and a market looking for scarce yield. The state’s 10-year spread currently stands at 63 basis points higher than Refinitiv Municipal Market Data’s AAA

Parties have filed nearly 30 objections to the Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s proposed Disclosure Statement for its central government debt Plan of Adjustment, with a key complaint coming from the Puerto Rico government, which said it will not authorize new bonds if pensions are cut. The parties had until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to file

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will sign newly-passed legislation handing mayoral control of the Chicago Public Schools to a fully-elected school board by 2027 even as negotiations continue over some board rules and the impact on the city’s $500 million in annual financial obligations. The package laid out in an amendment to House Bill 2908 was

Municipal bond yields rose by as much as seven basis points in the belly of the curve Thursday, playing catch-up to the U.S. Treasury market, while Refinitiv Lipper reported another large round of inflows, a nod from investors that they remain engaged in the market, regardless of low rates. Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.85 billion of

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board tried to expel a suit against the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and, at the same hearing, Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura Taylor Swain said she would not send out a central government disclosure statement until she was confident all parties had made sincere efforts for consensus. Both developments took

Two veteran municipal analyst professionals — John Kenward and Kathy Evers — retired this spring from Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings and Kate Boatright has moved over from the analyst side to take on Evers’ role as head of the U.S. relationship management team. The Dallas-based Boatright, who was a senior director for the U.S.

The E.&J. Gallo Winery will build a new plant in South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster and the state Department of Commerce said Tuesday. The $423 million production facility and distribution center in Chester County is expected to create 496 new jobs over the next eight years. In May, the Commerce Department received authorization from the

Municipals played catch up to U.S. Treasuries and were softer outside of 10 years, but the primary was the focus Tuesday with several large new issues repriced to lower and higher yields. Triple-A benchmarks rose one to two basis points, USTs were little changed on the day in the 10-year and off a basis point

As the market for ESG-certified bonds grows, Oregon-based Kestrel Verifiers is growing along with it. The eight-person women-owned firm has added two new employees this year and gained marquee clients like Stanford University, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the cities of Boston and Seattle, the latter a joint project

New York State and its appropriation-backed obligations received elevated outlooks to stable from S&P Global Ratings, which cited federal rescue aid and improved budget balance. S&P revised its outlook from negative on the state’s general obligation bonds, which it rates AA-plus. S&P also affirmed its AAA/A-1-plus, AA-plus/A-1-minus and AA/A-1 joint-support and dual ratings on various