Bonds

The Louisiana State Bond Commission this week approved the sale of $50 million in revenue bonds to help the Calcasieu Parish School Board resume work on those schools damaged last year by two hurricanes. Construction has been halted because of delays in reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “A year after two devastating hurricanes,

Tropical Storm Ida’s damage in New York exposed vulnerabilities to the city itself and the mass transit system that serves it. While the federal and state governments have funding and other remedies in the works, local concerns range from frayed infrastructure to better communication in the face of a new quick-strike phenomenon, flash flooding. And

Puerto Rico’s local government revoked a law the Oversight Board has been considering using to issue restructured bonds without the local government’s support. Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi signed Project 959 on Thursday, revoking the 1942 law, which had been used over the years to justify bond refundings. The board has argued it could legally

Key municipal market provisions will advance after the House Ways and Means Committee approved the measures yesterday after a four-day markup of a portion of the Biden Administration’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better proposal. The muni provisions, including the restoration of advance refundings, a direct-pay bond program, raising the threshold for muni bonds to be

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tapped San Antonio, Texas, school superintendent Pedro Martinez — a former Chicago Public Schools fiscal chief — to lead the district as fiscal and governance change looms. Lightfoot introduced Martinez as the new chief executive officer at a news conference Wednesday. Martinez is the first Latino to hold the CEO position

State retirement systems ended fiscal 2021 in the strongest financial shape in more than a decade, and states with the worst-funded plans — Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kentucky — led their peers on contribution increases. After struggling since the end of 2009, state retirement systems in fiscal 2021 enjoyed massive market returns coupled with

The municipal primary was the focus Tuesday with large deals repricing to lower yields while the secondary market took a backseat with benchmark curves little changed even as U.S. Treasuries rallied and stocks sold off. Triple-A benchmarks saw a basis point bump in spots while U.S. Treasury yields fell five basis points on the 10-

Broker-dealers told the Securities and Exchange Commission this week they support a proposal to reduce the volume of disclosures they would need to make to customers on an annual basis, though they also suggested some tweaks to the concept. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and Bond Dealers of America submitted comment letters to

Municipals were little changed ahead of a $10 billion-plus new-issue week as California offered $2 billion of general obligation bonds to retail investors and the market considered the municipal bond provisions offered from Washington. Triple-A benchmarks reported steady levels while U.S. Treasuries improved and equities also improved. “The municipal market is relatively unchanged and not

Texas Republican leaders have taken their battle with the federal government to a level not seen since desegregation. On virtually every front — healthcare, voting rights, women’s rights, gay and trans-gendered rights, crime, immigration, education — elected state leaders have assumed an adversarial position as reflected in laws, lawsuits and public declarations. Leading the opposition

Municipals were little changed, underperforming a U.S. Treasury rate reversal from Wednesday as all eyes were on the primary with Minnesota selling $897 million of general obligation bonds to strong reception. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved while the 10-year UST fell four basis points and the 30-year five. As such, ratios rose slightly with the 10-year

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the release of $2.75 billion to support the state’s Homekey project Thursday. The program provides money to local governments to build permanent supportive housing for unhoused people. It’s estimated the additional funding could build up to 14,000 housing units for people exiting homelessness, said Newsom, who called it the largest

Almost two dozen amicus briefs have been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the past 10 days in favor of granting Supplemental Security Income benefits to Puerto Ricans and other territorial residents, with oral arguments set for Nov. 8. Providing the payments would mean an additional $1 billion in federal transfers to Puerto Ricans

VanEck launched a municipal exchange-traded fund with a sustainability designation, the first ETF of its kind in the municipal space. The VanEck HIP Sustainable Municipal fund, SMI ticker, introduced Friday, is an actively managed fund focusing on investment-grade state and local government debt that funds projects promoting sustainable development, including affordable housing, green spaces and

Municipal bonds were little changed, ignoring another reversal in U.S. Treasuries on Friday ahead of a larger-than-average $10 billion-plus calendar led by California, Texas and New York issuers. Triple-A benchmarks were unmoved again Friday while the 10-year UST rose four basis points and the 30-year four. As such, ratios fell slightly with the 10-year muni-to-Treasury

First of two parts Visceral memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City — and more positively, the response from the capital markets — linger 20 years later. The anniversary comes as the city is trying to emerge from a newer crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, generational

The presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and Dallas said Thursday they would sell their individual stock holdings by Sept. 30 and invest the proceeds in diversified index funds or hold them in cash. Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, and Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Fed, released near-identical statements Thursday

Title: Senior Fixed Income AnalystFirm: ICE Data ServicesAge: 35 David Cantamessa was hired by the Municipal Evaluations team at ICE Data Services in 2016 to help with the firm’s roll out of live, real-time municipal yield curves. Since then, David has led the implementation and management of ICE’s Municipal Bond Curves for real-time market data,

Title: Director Public Finance — Credit StrategyFirm: Wells FargoAge: 39 Kristen Fontana always had an affinity for the policy side of public finance. After dipping her toes into public finance with an internship at an investment bank during the financial crisis, she decided to go back to school for a graduate degree. There, Kristen said,

Georgia-based Piedmont Healthcare Inc. heads into the market with a $1 billion taxable issue that folds a bridge loan used to finance its acquisition of four hospitals from for-profit HCA Healthcare into its long-term debt portfolio. Piedmont will offer the bonds as three index-eligible bullets with $300 million due in 10 years, $300 million in