Midwest

The Missouri House approved legislation to strip St. Louis of its earnings tax on remote work; Wisconsin lawmakers unveiled a plan to raise revenue sharing.

"When the rating agencies developed and rolled out their ESG scores, they said their ESG scores would not impact an issuer's credit rating. We are holding them to their word," said Ben Watkins, director of the state Division of Bond Finance.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott traded barbs over the flow of migrants as the city has been overwhelmed since Texas began sending them on to Chicago last August.

Additional spending was permitted by a rosier revenue forecast that lifted expected general fund revenues through the next biennium.

The city is offering more than $1 billion of debt under its higher-rated Sales Tax Securitization Corp., and its water and wastewater revenue credits.

Indianapolis Public Schools wants $410 million for projects throughout the district with 23 schools in line for improvements.

Transition committee members include several names familiar to the public finance community including Martin Cabrera, head of Cabrera Capital Markets, a majority Latino-owned investment banking firm, and Richard Price, executive chairman of Mesirow, which also does public finance banking.

"Tenders are another tool in the toolbox, that depending on the situation and market dynamics, can be used to generate robust savings," Aaron Heintz said.

S&P signaled the next lift needed for Detroit to shed junk status is within reach — in the next one to two years — by assigning a positive outlook to the BB-plus rating.

One of the largest P3s in the university energy space has landed in court three years into a 50-year contract.