Bonds

Red flags waved as Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza proposed issuing $704 million in pension obligation bonds to deal with a pestering unfunded liability problem in Rhode Island’s capital city. The amount exceeds the city’s annual operating budget. Bond markets often frown on such borrowing and sentiment among state officials who must sign off is uncertain.

Illinois will dip into its growing pot of tax revenues to pay off the remaining $2.175 billion of outstanding debt borrowed through the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility to manage last year’s COVID-19 tax blows. The Treasury Department’s interim guidance, released May 10, barring debt repayment as an eligible use of American Rescue Plan dollars

Municipal bonds were little changed Friday ahead of a $7 billion holiday-shortened week — led by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s $800 million-plus green bond deal — as investors head into the last week before the June reinvestment season begins. There are 19 deals larger than $100 million in a mixture of credits that

The Federal Reserve should get a conversation going on tapering its bond-purchase program “sooner rather than later,” Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said, adding his voice to a growing minority of U.S. central bank officials signaling the process should begin sometime soon. “It is something that, in my mind, we should start to have a

Factors pushing U.S. inflation higher are likely to ebb at the start of 2022, said Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly. “There’s just going to be a sequence of these temporary factors that are going to persist probably through the end of the year,” Daly said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg

Nicholas Falgione, 55, of Wexford, Pa., a longtime municipal banker and managing director at PNC Capital Markets, died on May 12 after a three-year battle with liver cancer. He joined PNC in 2013 as a managing director based in Pittsburgh as part of the expansion of the firm’s public finance teams in Pennsylvania and Florida.

Municipal high-grade benchmarks were little changed for the fourth day as U.S. Treasuries improved, as did equities, and Refinitiv Lipper reported heavy high-yield inflows. Fund inflows continue to be in positive territory with Refinitiv reporting $725 million of total inflows into municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending May 19. High-yield funds made up

With the era of the federal gas tax as a viable mechanism for funding infrastructure coming to an end, proposals are emerging that could get the municipal market heavily involved in rebuilding aging surface projects. The seemingly accelerating demise of the gas tax and what to do about the infrastructure funding challenge was a major

Municipal benchmarks were unchanged top to bottom Wednesday as investors focused on the robust primary offerings, underwriters repriced bonds to lower yields while issuers saw good demand in the competitive markets as munis largely ignored FOMC taper talk and the weakness in U.S. Treasuries that followed the news. Discussions about tapering asset purchases could soon

Municipal benchmark yields continued to trade in a narrow range in the secondary Tuesday while the new-issue market came alive with two high-grade competitive loans and speculative-grade Guam pricing bonds to strong demand. U.S. Treasuries gave little direction and the market held steady to firmer in spots as a diverse set of deals got done

It would cost Texas little to pass a law barring banks that fail a pro-gun litmus test from underwriting bond deals in the Lone Star State, one of the measure’s sponsors claims. The bill would require companies to certify that they do not have policies discriminating against firearm or ammunition businesses to be allowed to

Municipals were quietly traded with some strength outside 10 years as investors await the larger new-issue calendar that begins with a retail order period Tuesday from Connecticut and competitive loans from West Virginia and high-grade Prince George’s County, Maryland. Municipal benchmarks were little changed, with a basis point bump on Refinitiv MMD’s scale outside 2031

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board appears poised to do away with a requirement that dealers provide disclosures to customers who may not be invested in municipals, a request industry groups have been making for years. The MSRB requested comment May 14 on potential changes to Rules G-10 on investor and municipal advisory client education and

Connecticut officials enter this week’s $1 billion general obligation bond sale armed with four upgrades in six weeks, including three within two days last week. Fitch Ratings on Friday upgraded the state’s GO rating to AA-minus. One day earlier, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and S&P Global Ratings elevated Connecticut to AA and A-plus, respectively. Moody’s

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board voted to overrule the territory’s House of Representatives on spending for the privatization of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority transmission and distribution system. On Wednesday the House voted 43 to 0 with 2 abstentions against authorizing a revision to this year’s General Fund budget allocating $750 million for the

The Federal Reserve’s policy is in a good place right now, said Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, while playing down signals from data that she warns will be volatile as the economy reopens. “The volatility month-to-month I think is something we should expect, Mester said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We’re really at

California Gov. Gavin Newsom capped a week of daily multi-billion dollar additions to his proposed $267.8 billion budget Friday with a plan to bring universal broadband to the state and expand Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants over the age of 60. The governor began the week by declaring the state will a $75.7 billion surplus and

The fracas between governors and legislatures over executive powers during the COVID-19 pandemic is reaching a new level in Pennsylvania — two proposed constitutional amendments. Keystone State voters on Tuesday will decide on two ballot measures that would limit the governor’s emergency disaster declaration powers and enable the state legislature to end a declaration with

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board sent a fiscal 2022 General Fund budget 0.67% larger than the current fiscal year budget to the Puerto Rico legislature. The board submitted its $10.112 billion budget to the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and Senate Monday. The current fiscal year’s budget is $10.045 billion, which has seen revenues coming

Municipal yields rose Wednesday on the back of a rising U.S. Treasury market, a sell-off in equities amid inflation concerns and push back from investors in the primary that led to higher yields on new-issues. Triple-A benchmark yields rose two to four basis points across the curve while municipal to UST ratios closed at 60%

It is almost impossible to read a newspaper or listen to a newscast without being reminded that the country is beginning to return to normalcy. Activity can be found everywhere. Projects, initiatives, and opportunities are being announced daily. The activity level in government marketplaces is close to an all-time high. Pent up demand and critical

Connecticut officials remembered Robert Ward as a diligent lawmaker and state auditor whom both sides of the political aisle respected. Ward, a North Branford lawyer who led the Republican minority caucus in the House of Representatives for 12 years and was one of two state auditors from 2011 to 2016, died Sunday after a long

After a year of disruption in wealth management — widespread working from home, virtual meetings between financial advisors and their clients, volatility in the stock market — the world will hopefully begin recovering later this year. Many of the trends the pandemic in finance accelerated may be here to stay. Catherine Keating brings us her

With the clock ticking on the deadline to pass a state budget, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker removed one contentious issue from the table by agreeing to fund a scheduled $350 million increase in school aid. In fiscal 2021, Pritzker had bypassed the scheduled $350 million annual increase required under the evidence-based formula adopted in 2017

FINRA, in an Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC), recently settled an action with NatAlliance Securities for violations of MSRB Rule G-13, G-17 and G-27. The settlement of a matter involving G-13 is the first time a firm has been charged with violating that rule since 2003 and left some wondering if FINRA was using enforcement

Municipals were little changed on a sparsely traded Monday as U.S. Treasuries showed some weakness but participants await the week’s diverse primary, which should keep rates steady as reinvestment needs tick up. The new-issue market continues to show strong and welcoming reception as supply remains manageable and reinvestment needs are about to intensify for a

Bond issuers in Montana and Texas have separately reported an adverse impact on the tax-exempt status of their bonds in new public disclosures with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. In Texas, the MSRB filing involved Series 2015 El Paso County General Obligation Refunding Bonds. The Internal Revenue Service sent a letter dated April 28 informing

The last financer of a controversial prison offering in Alabama has abandoned the plan, leaving the fate of the new facilities in doubt. A spokesperson for Alabama was not immediately available. Stifel announced Monday it is no longer involved with any of the parties in the bond offering that had been planned by the state.

Despite several false starts in recent years, municipal market advocates as well as business and labor leaders believe the stars are aligning for an opportunity to pass meaningful infrastructure legislation that may include top muni priorities. Prominent voices supportive of infrastructure investment are striking their most optimistic tones in years to kick off infrastructure week

Why are some places tech hubs rather than others? One reason is the magnetic pull of universities and their innovative research. In this Leaders talk, Juliet Weissman, the Chief Administrative Officer of New York City’s Cornell Tech campus, discusses how the university’s urban location, at a new Roosevelt Island location opened in 2017, brings together