Washington

July's total volume was $25.939 billion in 542 issues, down from $28.258 billion in 619 issues a year earlier, the smallest percentage drop in monthly issuance year-over-year in 2023, according to Refinitiv data.

The offered side "has continued to pack the primary market with value to manage their (and the market's) potential downside if disruption did occur; this also helps the context for muni buyers headed into the Fed," said Matt Fabian, partner at Municipal Market Analytics.

Most top 10 issuers for 1H are from New York and California, with three from New York and three from California.

The $6.9 billion new-issue calendar features high-grade deals from Georgia, Washington and Massachusetts, among other frequently traded credits, which should provide direction for scales.

The Biden Administration has partnered with five cities and the State of California in efforts to reduce homelessness.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation Tuesday improving a tax increment financing program created in 2021 that wasn't working as intended.

Seattle's Sound Transit, the biggest beneficiary of a federal low-interest loan program, had received three more loans totaling $327 million.

Investors will be greeted Monday with a new-issue calendar estimated at $7.208 billion, led by $1.3 billion of GOs from bellwether Washington.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Providence St. Joseph Health a notch to A2, following similar moves by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

Gov. Jay Inslee's plan to put a $4 billion housing bond before voters was discarded by budget writers in the state Senate.

A substantial drop in new money volume sets California and the Far West apart from the the country.

Gov. Jay Inslee wants a $4 billion bond referendum for housing that would be outside the state's debt limit. State lawmakers must approve first.

Washington's new measure to clean up Puget Sound would require billions in borrowing over the next decade, including up to $14 billion in King County alone.

The spiderweb of funding sources for natural disaster recovery makes it hard to track the actual costs to state and local government of fighting wildfires.

Partisan politics is playing a larger role in public finance, flaring up into bickering more often than in the past.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and British Columbia Premier John Horgan signed a statement of cooperation.

New-money volume was off in the Golden State and across the Far West, but refunding volume was down even more.

Looking forward, a myriad of factors, including spiking fuel prices, fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the heat wave, “will facilitate recessionary(ish) economic outcomes by year end," noted an MMA report.

Most top 10 issuers for 1H are from New York and California, with four from New York and two from California.

Munis are improving, but positive second-half municipal returns likely won’t be enough to offset the major losses of the first half of the year.