Massachusetts

One-time spending, rainy-day funds and fare hikes are forming a rickety bridge for crossing the transit funding ravine.

In a year characterized by a rise in mega deals, the agency looks to address an advancing financial "cliff."

In the first half of 2024, winding-down federal aid, a resurgence of Build America Bond refundings and election uncertainty have contributed to the surge in issuance, said James Welch, a portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management.

April's volume stood at $40.456 billion in 653 issues, up 21.2% from $33.377 billion in 666 issues in 2023.

"Just like the ATM became an additional transaction channel in the banking industry, I believe distributed ledger technology will provide municipal issuers with a similarly valued tool to sell their bonds," said Rick Coscia, Quincy's Strategic Asset Manager.

Boston is more dependent on property taxes from commercial real estate, and property taxes in general, than most of its large-city peers.

High rates and high inflation, coupled with rich reserves, pushed off or delayed issuers coming to market in 2023, noted James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

An off year from municipal bond issuers in the Northeast in 2023 pulled the national volume numbers into negative territory.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of nearly $1.5 billion.

Maura Healey's budget plan for fiscal 2025 features more money for the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, which would increase its bond capacity by $1.1 billion.

The SIFMA Swap Index fell to 3.24% Wednesday, down 50 basis points from 3.74% from the week prior, and 131 basis points from 4.55% it hit on Jan. 24 as swings continued in the VRDO market. Tax-exempt money market funds reversed course to see inflows of almost $4 billion.

Issuance for the month is slightly above the $27.666 billion 10-year average, according to LSEG Refinitiv data.

Mr. Laverty spent most of his life living and working in New York City as a municipal bond underwriter for several Wall Street firms.

The one-year was cut up to eight basis points, depending on the scale.

The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company deal, self-designated as green, will finance a soon-to-open 6.9 megawatt, 35-acre solar power project.

Since November, 10-year munis have fallen 130 basis points, according to Refinitiv MMD. This has pushed ratios to near-record lows, said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

After this week's sale, the state intends to issue another series of refunding bonds in February in connection with a potential tender offer for taxable GOs and a current refunding of some tax-exempt GOs.

Despite the outperformance this week, and while the asset class had "a stellar December, which rounded out a very solid year," Barclays PLC strategists said the high-grade muni market has become "quite rich."

The muni market saw $379.992 billion of debt issued in 2023, only $11.076 billion less than the lackluster $391.068 billion seen in 2022.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of more than $1 billion.