Muni Think

Why invest in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market? SIFMA's Michael Decker offers some of the compelling reasons.

Does the Federal Reserve really think that another round of continued buying of long term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities will provide a significant healing effect to the ailing economy? Isn't it time to consider a different course of treatment where the "bang for the monetary buck" will be more significant?

Rep. Gwen Moore thinks HR 1628, the Public Pension Transparency Act introduced last week by Reps. Devin Nunes, Paul Ryan and Darrell Issa, proceeds from a false premise, which causes the bill to introduce opacity rather than transparency of disclosure into the market, and intrudes on state sovereignty and policy preferences in order to attack public workers and pensions.

The timing of twin proposals by Rep. Devin Nunes and Messieurs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, which threatren state and local tax-exempt municipal bonds, could not have been worse.

New issue bond activity for charter schools in the first quarter reflects diversity in both charter schools and issuance characteristics.

Absent any further action by Congress, on May 19 the debt ceiling will automatically reset to the nation's debt level. This has important implications for municipal issuers selling refunding debt near this date.

The proposed cap of 28% may be a zero-sum game at best because it could increase costs for nearly all taxpayers. While there are additional arguments against adjusting the municipal tax exemption, the culmination of these factors indicates that such a significant change could alter what has served as one of the most efficient forms of government and infrastructure financing for more than a century.

In the next few years, the Treasury plans to completely "wind down" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the impact on the pre-refunded and escrowed-to-maturity municipal securities will be devastating.

Instead of repealing the tax-exempt status, we need to rebuild the economy by reinvesting in our infrastructure that will ultimately create jobs. One of the best ways to do this is through low-cost borrowing at the local level.

While NAIPFA disagrees with these participants' statements that Municipal Advisors are wholly unregulated, NAIPFA does agree that the SEC's Municipal Advisor rulemaking should be completed as soon as possible to allow for further development of MSRB rules.