Midwest

The consolidation of suburban and downstate firefighter pension fund assets is nearly complete but litigation is delaying the police consolidation.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot's proposed budget would forgo an inflation-formula-based property tax hike and make supplemental contributions to the city's pension funds.

Missouri and Iowa closed out fiscal 2022 with balances that paved the way for tax cuts.

The state spreads landed wide compared to a May sale, but remained far narrower than early in the pandemic and during the state's two-year budget impasse.

Texas gave S&P until Oct. 13 to produce documents detailing its development and use of ESG factors in public finance ratings.

A larger new-issue slate led by large deals from the Texas Water Development Board and state of Illinois took focus away from the secondary.

Edward Bedore, who managed city finances under by Mayor Richard J. and Richard M. Daley, died this month at 84. Bedore is also remembered for promoting the Summer Business Institute.

Illinois will pay down another $450 million of the $1.8 billion outstanding from a $4.5 billion federal loan to pay pandemic-related unemployment claims.

With interest rates expected to keep rising, the deal will tap all of the remaining authorization from the $3.5 billion Rebuilding Michigan bond program.

"We really have worked hard during this strong stretch here of economic performance over the last 18 months or so to really kind of address some of those lingering debts we inherited," said Illinois Office of Management and Budget Director Alexis Sturm.