Ohio

The Ohio state Senate passed a bill that included $1.27 billion in bonds for state government facilities, classrooms, subdivisions and conservation projects.

Some public colleges in the Midwest are facing budgetary squeezes paired with programming directives from state legislators, a departure from trends elsewhere.

Larger deals, fewer issues: those were the overarching municipal bond sale trends, along with a surge in tax-exempt deals, across the Midwest in 2023.

Nearly half of America's private colleges and universities reported negative operating margins in fiscal year 2023, and the trend was even worse in the Midwest.

PureCycle Technologies announced that its Ohio subsidiary agreed to buy out the holders of $219.55 million of outstanding tax-exempt private activity bonds.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine rolled out the Welcome Home Ohio program, a product of the Ohio legislature's biennium budget bill, House Bill 33.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of more than $917 million.

Lake Erie College entered into a forbearance agreement with bondholders after the school didn't meet certain covenants it agreed to as part of a debt sale. 

Bonds used to buy eight senior living properties in Michigan and Ohio are likely to default within six months, S&P Global Ratings said.

Issuers should "absolutely be issuing if possible; the end of year outlook is positive on the surface but substantial volatility lies just below and could arrest or interrupt what have been easier primary market conditions," said MMA's Matt Fabian.

Moody's, which last rated the state triple-A in 1979, pointed to an economy that's "poised for diversification and growth."

Surpassing $150 million in total investments, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, Arizona and Georgia have joined Florida, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties and Miami Beach in supporting Israel financially in the wake of the deadly terror attacks by Hamas.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of more than $1.2 billion.

Nashville Senior Care, LLC's Chapter 11 filing impacts bonds sold through conduit issuers in Florida, Ohio and Tennessee.

Bondholders granted some breathing room to the speculative-grade polypropylene recycling project along the Ohio River, now reported to have entered production.

Norfolk Southern would buy a 338-mile city-owned railway for $1.6 billion, which Cincinnati would use to create a permanent infrastructure fund.

The upgrade "is driven by sustained improvements in the city's income tax collections and the city's superior gap-closing capacity," Fitch said.

The system's turnaround efforts include using proceeds of a proposed $710 million deal to sell hospice and home health assets to pay off direct placement debt.

"The SLGS window closed after we released the pre-marketing wire and had already signed off on the cashflows," which assumed the use of SLGS, city Auditor Megan Kilgore said. "I've had the SLGS window close the same week, even within a day or two of pricing, but not without any advance notice."