Bonds

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson may have secured a short-term win in passing a “laddered” continuing resolution to keep parts of the government funded until Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, but the measure will likely create many more legislative issues and earmark the early months of 2024 for more dysfunction in the Republican-controlled House.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has extended the suspension of his state’s gasoline tax for another month amid sustained high fuel costs. Kemp cited “ongoing economic hardships caused by rampant inflation” Wednesday when he signed an executive order foregoing Georgia’s 31.2 cents-per-gallon tax on gas and 35 cents-per-gallon tax on diesel for another month through Nov.

The issuance of nearly $3 billion of debt for Oklahoma utilities last year has been drawn into the state attorney general’s probe of potential profiteering and other misdeeds stemming from a fierce winter storm in 2021. A subpoena dated Tuesday from Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office gives the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which authorized the debt,

Voters in Maine rejected a much-debated proposal to replace the state’s two largest power providers with a public utility company in Tuesday’s election. Question 3 on the ballot, which asked voters to approve the state takeover of for-profit power providers Versant and Central Maine Power Company and the creation of a non-profit, publicly owned utility

In a troubled world, booming demand for American military weaponry has left the country in need of billions of dollars more in armaments than it can currently produce.  West Virginia is trying to meet that need. Though its footprint in the national defense sector is small, representing just .1% of the $558.7 billion in defense contracts

A debate over Amtrak funding derailed the House of Representative’s fiscal 2024 transportation bill Tuesday as opponents, many of them Republicans from the northeast, criticized the bill’s deep cuts to the train agency. The House was set to vote Tuesday on the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development measure, one of 12 appropriation bills that GOP leaders

Missouri has asked a federal court to toss a lawsuit filed by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association over the state’s first-of-its-kind anti-environmental, social and governance investing rules, arguing that the securities association lacks standing to bring the lawsuit. The dispute stems from Missouri’s four-month-old investment rules that require advisors and broker-dealers to disclose

Texas ended fiscal 2023 with a hefty cash balance of $48.4 billion in its general revenue fund due largely to higher, but slowing tax collections, the state comptroller reported Monday.  The annual cash report for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31 said the balance rose $14.6 billion or 43.4% from fiscal 2022. After transfers

The Florida Legislature’s special session began Monday with lawmakers looking for ways to help residents cope with the rising costs of property insurance. Lawmakers will meet through Nov. 9 and will also debate ways to provide more help for the victims of Hurricane Idalia, fight anti-Semitism and bolster support for Israel while broadening sanctions against

With a huge airport bond deal potentially on the horizon, Houston Controller Chris Brown is concerned about bringing the debt to the market in the wake of a crackdown by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on compliance with state laws prohibiting governmental contracts with companies, including investment banks, that “boycott”  or “discriminate” against the  fossil

States would suffer deep cuts in water infrastructure funding they receive through state revolving funds, which make up a significant corner of the municipal bond market, under a bill passed Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives. The fiscal 2024 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations measure, House Bill 4821, totals $37.4

Washington is banking on its high credit ratings and strong demand on previous sales as it heads to market Tuesday with a $483 million competitive refunding.  The bonds will be auctioned in two series: $296.550 million various purpose general obligation refunding bonds, Series R-2024A and $186.225 million motor vehicle fuel tax and vehicle-related fees GO

A Pennsylvania company that operates three nursing homes is in default, and it’s a familiar story: staff shortages and a large slump in occupancy in the aftermath of the pandemic. Senior Choice Inc. failed to make interest and principal payments due Oct. 31 on its $15.9 million bond issued in 2006 by the Cambria County

Inflation-adjusted revenues of the 50 states were down 13.7% January through August compared to the same period a year earlier, the Urban Institute reported, but despite this states remain fiscally healthy, thanks to prudent use of recent surpluses, one analyst said. In nominal terms, revenues were down 9.7% in the period. August state tax revenues

A bankrupt Iowa hospital could ultimately end up in the hands of the University of Iowa, which submitted the winning bid in a reopened auction last week.  A hearing on Mercy Hospital’s sale to the university is scheduled for Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cedar Rapids. Mercy Hospital in Iowa City filed a Chapter

Transcription: Keeley Webster (00:03):Hello, I am Keeley Webster here with another Bond Buyer podcast. Today I will be providing some insight into California Treasurer Ma’s run for Lieutenant Governor ahead of our broadcast of a fireside chat she did with Wells Fargo director Julia Kim at the California Public Finance Conference. Ma announced in June,

Overdue and over budget, a project to redevelop Connecticut’s New London Pier into an offshore wind energy hub for projects along the Atlantic coast is nearly complete. Its first shipments, components for a project in the Long Island Sound, are set to leave port early Tuesday. Launched in 2020 with an original price tag of

Against the backdrop of a big state-funded property tax cut and with a bond guarantee program fully back in business, Texas public school districts are asking voters for almost $18 billion of debt Nov. 7.  That accounts for the lion’s share of the $28.48 billion of bonds in 218 measures on Texas ballots, according to

A Louisiana congressional committee voted down plans for a $2 billion-plus public-private partnership that would replace an aging toll bridge near Lake Charles, a move that project proponents say will cost the state and provide for few alternatives. In an 8-6 vote on Tuesday, the Louisiana State Legislature’s Joint Transportation Highway and Public Works Committee

Jen Flood will be Michigan’s budget director, replacing Chris Harkins who is leaving the post next month. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday. Flood currently serves as deputy chief of staff, overseeing legislative affairs, federal affairs, policy, appointments, and community engagement divisions within the Democratic governor’s office. Jen Flood, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s current deputy chief