Florida

The recovery of local governments and utilities from hurricanes Helene and Milton continues but the outlook for next season and beyond is troubling.

The bonds — $824.8 million tax-exempt and $400 million taxable — follow Orlando Health's major acquisitions of hospitals in Alabama and Florida.

The Florida-based mining company failed to make $10 million in principal and interest payments due on Jan. 1. Florida had the largest number of defaults in 2024 at nine, per Municipal Market Analytics, Inc.

Florida sold $131.9 million of bonds Wednesday with double-barreled backing from the state's fuel tax and its full faith and credit pledge.

The muni market saw $507.585 billion of debt issued in 2024, up 31.8% from $385.061 in 2023. This surpasses the previous record of $484.601 billion in 2020 by more than $20 billion, per LSEG data.

The challenge to the 2022 approval of bonds for a PACE program could "catastrophically undermine" the finality of all Florida bond validations, the agency said.

Despite the approval, hurdles remain, including the team's request for more money from the government, which they say delayed approval of the bonds, leading to additional construction costs.

Something less than $400 million of the bonds will be taxable bonds.

Pinellas County still needs to approve more than $300 million in bonds of its own for the stadium and redevelopment.

Nonprofit Provident Resources Group is buying a five-year old student housing building that serves the University of Central Florida and Valencia College.