California

The correction to the municipal market has improved muni to UST ratios while uncertainty hangs over ahead of the election. J.P. Morgan's Peter DeGroot said the firm expects the end of next week "will mark the end of the difficult technical period in 2024 and believe that net supply in November will lead to better valuations broadly in the municipal market."

Several macro trends have converged to drive growth in municipal bond issuance, said participants at The Bond Buyer's California Public Finance conference.

Build America Mutual insured the majority of the maturities in the West Contra Costa Unified School District GO deal.

San Francisco's slow recovery from the pandemic and continued financial pressures drove the downgrade, Moody's analysts said.

State Treasurer Fiona Ma appointed Christina Sarron as executive director of the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority.

Christopher Roberts joins the firm as a managing director, Joey Dierker as an associate director, Soledad Mancias as a municipal underwriter, and Steve Basset as a director.

A preliminary 9.3% return on investments in the year ending June 30 brought CalPERS' funded ratio to 75%, the public pension fund reported.

Craig Brothers, partner, portfolio manager and co-head of fixed income strategy for Bel Air Investments, joins Bond Buyer senior reporter Keeley Webster and discusses why his firm, primarily invested in California debt, has veered away from California GOs and public works revenue bonds in favor of agency, school district and local government debt.

The state received $250 million in federal funding to expand a Salton Sea restoration project in Imperial County, near the Mexican border.

The Equitable School Revolving Fund will have 90 loans outstanding to charter schools across 23 states.

Fitch revised upward its outlook for Marin General Hospital and affirmed its revenue bonds at BBB, and general obligation bonds at AA-minus.

Santa Cruz, on California's coast, was particularly hard hit by flooding in 2023. In addition to the the I-Bank loan, the city secured a federal loan.

The California State School Board Association has sued over an education funding work-around included as a trailer bill in the budget.

September volume came in over $44 billion leading volume year-to-date to hit more than $380 billion, just shy of 2023's full-year total issuance.

California hospitals will be forced to close if they don't complete earthquake safety upgrades by 2030. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to extend the deadline.

California State Controller Malia Cohen was asked to form a task force to draft best practices for the state's charter schools after 11 San Diego charter schools became embroiled in a fraud case.

They new hires will serve various functions in different regions of the country.

The Los Angeles Unified School District bonds carry a sustainability label with a third party opinion from Kestrel.

"Should September's positive returns hold as we expect, it would mark the fourth consecutive month of positive total returns — the first such period since the five-month period spanning from March through July 2021," BofA strategists Yingchen Li and Ian Rogow said.

The airport's first new money foray into the muni market in nearly 12 years will begin to fund a $1.3 billion transformation plan.