Muni Minute: Bonds & Infrastructure: The View from D.C.

This week’s Muni Minute takes a look at the role of the municipal bond market in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. Scott Pattison of the National Governor’s Association is holding a high level conversation this week at the Municipal Forum of New York on municipal bonds and infrastructure and the states’ role in the new federal initiative.

VOICE OVER: The role of the municipal bond market in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure will be a key topic of discussion this week. Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Governor's Association, is the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Municipal Forum of New York on Tuesday. The NGA recently sent along a list of 428 shovel-ready infrastructure projects in 49 states and territories to the Trump Administration as candidates for the president's $1 trillion infrastructure initiative.

While the NGA has not made that final list public, it did release a smaller preliminary list of 50 projects the presidential transition team had received from states. Some of those projects include work on Phase 2 and 3 on New York City's Second Avenue subway line and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia and North Carolina. There is debate over the president's proposed plan, which would involve tax credits and would have to be tied to a tax reform package that could produce enough revenue to finance it. And with division, divisiveness and distrust running rife in DC, perhaps only a meeting on Valentine's Day could help. I'm Chip Barnett and this has been your Muni Minute.