Bonds

Lisa Washburn, managing director at Municipal Market Analytics spoke during a virtual panel Monday afternoon. A wide array of muni market leaders are hopeful that their efforts will inspire more disclosure without a need for strict regulation and future rulemaking. During the second annual Government Finance Officers Association MiniMuni virtual conference, issuers, broker-dealers, securities lawyers

It was all about the states Monday as the municipal market saw Hawaii’s rating get slashed ahead of its GO sale on Wednesday while Illinois, Wisconsin and Nevada prepared to competitively sell bonds Tuesday. Meanwhile, the New York City Transitional Finance Authority said Monday it will issue about $1.1 billion of future tax secured tax-exempt

Roberto RuizStifel, Nicolaus & Co. Title: DirectorFirm: Stifel Age: 37 Roberto Ruiz, a director in Stifel’s San Francisco office, was drawn to public finance by time spent studying in China after he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology. While teaching English and studying Mandarin, Roberto took notice of the infrastructure popping up around him, which

Fortress Investment Group delayed the pricing of $3.2 billion of municipal bonds to build a passenger railroad between southern California and Las Vegas, a sign that investors were hesitant to finance such a speculative project at a time of deep economic uncertainty. The company boosted the equity contribution to the project by $500 million, among

The economic news was mostly positive Friday, with consumers spending on clothes, cars and eating out, while manufacturing continues to suffer. Retail sales soared 1.9% in September, after an unrevised 0.6% climb in August, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 1.5% in the month after a 0.5% gain a month earlier.

An unsuccessful bid by the Philadelphia 76ers to get public support to build their own arena may encourage the basketball team’s owners to try and spur a city versus suburb bidding war. The NBA franchise, currently a tenant at the 24-year-old Wells Fargo Center, looked into building a new arena in the Penn’s Landing section

A record $1.9 billion capital package is headed to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ desk after lawmakers signed off on the long-stalled package that had gotten caught up in House GOP opposition to Walz’ emergency pandemic powers. “This bonding bill is a smart investment that will create thousands of good-paying jobs, deliver improvements to local projects

Republicans and Democrats believe the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility was initially useful to the market, though are at odds over the future of the program set to expire at the end of this year. In a fifth report from the Congressional Oversight Commission released Thursday, lawmakers disagreed on a partisan basis whether to extend

As New York City grips with a major financial crisis due to the effects of COVID-19, another call has emerged to overhaul its public pension system. Manhattan Institute recommended a four-pronged approach that includes paring “unusually generous” benefits back to a prevailing standard in the private and public sectors and transitioning new employees toward a

The new-issue calendar is stuffed with all types of healthcare deals and taxable offerings, inflating its size up to almost $16.5 billion, once again the largest supply slate of 2020. Healthcare deals and taxable sales feature prominently on the list of new deals, but offerings from the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois as well as

Puerto Rico’s Treasury collections in July and August were ahead of the Oversight Board’s May projections but well behind last year’s actual collections. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, in March the Treasury postponed the due dates of several types of taxes. Income taxes for people, corporations, companies, withholding and sales and use tax payments, were

Four municipal finance, securities and banking industry organizations have spent a combined $27.1 million seeking to influence federal policy through lobbying and campaign donations over the last year. The majority of the spending, revealed by public disclosure reports, was $21.36 million devoted to lobbying members of Congress and federal agencies over the 12 months that

There was plenty of action in the municipal bond market on Thursday as billions of dollars of bonds were placed into investors’ hands. Municipals traded little changed for most of the day, with yields steady to slightly stronger along the AAA scales. “Muni bonds are posting small gains, helped by the global flight-to-quality move,” ICE

Cook County, Illinois’ proposed $6.9 billion 2021 budget relies on reserves, existing federal relief funds, and job cuts to close a $400 million shortfall due to rising expenses and COVID-19 fiscal wounds. The budget does not cut critical services or raise taxes, although there are some fee increases. New revenue from legalized cannabis sales, online

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is expected to discuss its long-term strategic plan with a new at leader at its helm, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal on whether to change regulations for electronic trading platforms. The MSRB announced its scheduled topics Wednesday ahead of its Oct. 21- 22 meeting. Like the

Municipal bond buyers got a taste of this week’s healthy new-issue slate from diverse issuers on Wednesday. Municipals remained steady, with yields little changed across the AAA scales. ICI reported muni bond funds and exchange-traded funds saw combined inflows of $2.5 billion, the 23rd straight week of positive results. CUSIP Global Services said requests for

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said a rebound in U.S. coronavirus cases to about 50,000 a day has added uncertainty to the outlook and may discourage businesses from hiring or investing. “An elevated case rate raises economic uncertainty and that affects businesses’ willingness to hire or spend or invest,” Barkin told a

The inspector general of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has called for an overhaul of contractor performance evaluations, saying capital project managers traditionally rate subpar vendors “satisfactory” in evaluations. That creates “evaluation inflation” in a system that tracks contractor and consultant performance for capital contracts above $250,000, Carolyn Pokorny said. She added that fewer than

Privatized student housing projects will remain under pressure at least into the spring, as reduced occupancy levels won’t improve, according to analysts. Moody’s Investors Service analyst Florence Zeman said a number of public-private partnership residence hall developments have been negatively impacted by colleges offering virtual learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has prompted

The University of Arizona’s main campus is in Tucson.University of Arizona The University of Arizona will price a $96 million refunding of system revenue bonds after being hit with a new negative rating outlook. The taxable bonds are pricing Wednesday and Thursday through book runner Citigroup, led by managing director Tim Rattigan and director Alex

As New York City’s library systems cope with tighter budgets during COVID-19, state-authorized design-build project delivery could help them cut through a capital construction system fraught with delays and cost overruns. The city’s three public library systems have a capital needs backlog of roughly $1 billion. In addition, the city cut $2.5 billion from the

Denver International Airport will price $925 million of refunding bonds to help ease its debt service burden during the pandemic-driven traffic decline. The bonds will price in four series on Oct. 15 through negotiation with book-runner Barclays, led by managing directors James Henn and David Ardayfio and director Katherine Lee. “The transaction is anticipated to

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. has agreed to pay $47,500 to settle charges it violated multiple municipal securities rules after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found it failed to accurately submit variable rate demand obligation interest rate information. Raymond James agreed to pay the fine and be censured while neither admitting nor denying FINRA’s findings

Facing a sharp downturn in revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will create some fiscal breathing room with $371 million of refunding bonds. Upfront savings of $55.2 million will come in 2021, with $6.6 million available in 2022, according to the authority’s online presentation to investors. “Like many other toll roads

Perhaps as a sign of the contentious election, many views about how the results will affect the nation and the economy have emerged. Some question whether the results will be clear-cut or throw the country into crisis. “While we believe the election is unlikely to impact the overall direction of the markets, there will likely

When public finance banker James Cervantes decided to pull the trigger on retirement, he had to let go of his plan for a big retirement party to say goodbye to long-time colleagues. Cervantes was a Stifel California managing director and ran Stone & Youngberg, acquired by Stifel in 2011, for a time. He also chaired

Puerto Rico Oversight Board member Arthur Gonzalez became the fourth original board member to step down on Friday. On Wednesday President Donald Trump appointed Justin Peterson to sit on the board. Effectively, this ended González’s tenure on the board unless a member of the Congressional leadership recommended him to the president. González’s announcement Friday seals

For five decades, Florida-grown Bryant Miller Olive PA has practiced public finance law across the Sunshine State and the Southeast. BMO’s practice areas also include state and local government law, complex transactions, project finance, and litigation. The offices of Bryant Miller Olive celebrated the firm’s 50th anniversary at a retreat in January.BMO The firm turned

A win by Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential election might create a smoother path toward completing proposed upgrades to a 110-year-old tunnel linking Manhattan and northern New Jersey that have hit roadblocks under President Trump, according to transportation advocates. Philip Howard, chairman of the nonpartisan watchdog group Common Good, said the Trump administration

Municipal new-issue supply will be the largest for 2020 during the holiday-shortened week with more than $14 billion of deals on tap. IHS Ipreo estimates volume for the upcoming week at $14.3 billion, composed of $11 billion of negotiated deals and $3.3 billion of competitive sales. Transportation, hospital and taxable deals feature heavily on the