Oklahoma’s attorney general is pursuing potential legal action against parties that may have illegally profited off of huge demand for electricity and natural gas during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which led to nearly $2.9 billion of bonds being sold last year to cover extraordinary costs incurred by four utility companies. AG Gentner Drummond announced Tuesday
Bonds
Data standardization across the municipal market will likely take years and much discussion to pinpoint the issues and how the market can solve them. Some of the apparent problems were discussed at the Brookings Municipal Finance Conference where Marc Joffe, federalism and state policy analyst at the Cato Institute, presented his paper outlining them. “If
Desert Community College District in California saw its general obligation rating upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service by one notch to Aa1 affecting $511.5 million of debt. The outlook was revised to stable from positive. The upgrade “reflects the district’s large and growing tax base and improving financial position,” Moody’s analysts wrote in Monday’s report. The
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, who called for aggressive interest-rate hikes to fight the recent inflation surge, resigned after 15 years in the position to become dean of a university business school. Bullard, 62, stepped down from his post as head of the bank effective Thursday and will fully depart Aug.
Hospital and health system mergers picked up steam during the second quarter, providing signs of a strengthening COVID-19 pandemic recovery and the sector’s heightened attention to the benefits of consolidation as it navigates the pressures bruising margins. Transactions announced for the second quarter rose to 20 involving $13.3 billion of revenues from 15 in the
California lawmakers are in negotiations on a bill that would ask voters for $15.5 billion of bond authority to help fill a gap in the state’s plans to spend $54 billion over five years to tackle climate change. The state Senate approved Senate Bill 867 on May 31on a 33-5 vote. The bill, currently in
Rising costs, particularly for wages, are pressuring K-12 school districts, colleges and universities, possibly leading to strained budgets, credit negative responses and labor strife, according to Moody’s Investors Service. While inflation growth has slowed, its effects linger. The consumer price index was up 3% from June 2022 to June 2023, marking the smallest 12-month increase
The Wisconsin biennial budget package taps the state’s flush coffers to offset borrowing needed for capital, while also paving the way for a centuries-long hike in local education funding and scaled-down tax relief, reshaped by Gov. Tony Evers through his veto pen. Evers, a Democrat, had initially pitched a $3.3 billion capital spending plan that
Environmentally friendly infrastructure got a big boost just before California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the budget on July 1 and then again last week through a grant-funding program. With the budget shortfall this year, lawmakers scrambled to tap the state’s cap-and-trade program and other non-general fund sources to sustain ongoing programs. California lawmakers added money
Municipal financial advisors saw $146.805 billion of business in 2,685 transactions in the first half of 2023, down from $167.727 billion in 3,484 deals over the same time period in 2022. Municipal Capital Markets Group, Columbia Capital Management and Caine Mitter and Associates moved into the top 10, while Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors, Stifel Nicolaus
Despite wide expectations for declining revenues, big-ticket tax cuts were on the agenda in state legislatures across the Northeast during the most recent budget negotiation periods. With a slowdown in economic activity expected going into fiscal 2024 after a strong post-COVID rebound, almost every state in the region passed or is still negotiating tax cuts
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan said more interest-rate increases will likely be needed to spur meaningful disinflation and bring price-growth rates back to the central bank’s target. “I remain very concerned about whether inflation will return to target in a sustainable and timely way,” Logan said Thursday in remarks delivered at the
The Federal Reserve needs to raise interest rates a bit further to rein in an inflation rate that’s too high, monetary expert John Taylor said. “They’ve had a big adjustment over the last couple of years,” the Stanford University professor told a webinar hosted by the American Council for Capital Formation on Thursday, adding, “I
Federal Reserve officials were less united at their June meeting than their unanimous decision suggested, as some favored interest-rate increases but went along with the move to leave policy unchanged. “Almost all participants judged it appropriate or acceptable to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5% to 5.25%,” minutes from the
Investment losses last year eroded funding ratio gains achieved a year earlier by Chicago’s pension system, casting a shadow over a healthy pickup of taxes on the city’s audited financial results. The city’s overall net position for accounting purposes deteriorated to negative $27.6 billion in 2022 from negative $27.1 billion in 2021 due to growth
Illinois headed into the new fiscal year with fresh deposits to its rainy-day and pension stabilization funds, a low bill balance, and $1 billion in available general revenue funds — hitting several high marks on some fiscal metrics that had sunk during the state’s budget impasse six years ago. The state ended the year with
Another $42 billion worth of infrastructure spending dedicated to improving broadband connectivity is now moving from federal to state coffers, spurring comparisons to electrification efforts under the New Deal nearly a century ago and potentially kickstarting additional bond issuance. The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program flows from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is aimed
Connecticut Green Bank is offering a seventh round of its one-year taxable Green Liberty Notes in a sale set to conclude on July 31. With buy-in starting at $100, the notes are geared towards retail investors, carry a 5% coupon rate, and will be issued through CGB Green Liberty Notes LLC, a subsidiary of the
Dallas is moving ahead with plans to finance the replacement of its convention center and improvements to Fair Park starting with the private placement in August of short-term debt, which would be refunded as part of a sale of at least $1.4 billion of long-term bonds in 2024. The city council June 14 authorized work
Democratic Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois has re-upped a long-stalled plan for a national infrastructure bank, saying the bank is needed to complement public infrastructure spending while acknowledging the difficult political realities of getting it through a Republican-led House. “Most bills that get introduced never get passed, so once you understand that, you don’t worry
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