Gov. Rick Perry has replaced chairman Paul Hudson with fellow Public Utility Commission member Barry Smitherman, while keeping Hudson on the three-member panel that regulates utilities in the state. Perry appointed Smitherman to the panel in April 2004. Smitherman has nearly two decades in public banking and legal positions, andalso served as assistant district attorney in Harris County. The Bond Buyer reported in 2002 that Bank One fired Smitherman for failing to get approval before submitting an opinion piece to the Houston Chronicle. Smitherman and PUC board member Julie Parsley voted down a proposal by Hudson in 2006 designed to save millions of Texans about $17 per month on their electric bills. The plan’s legality was questionable and conveyed the wrong message to electric markets, Smitherman and Parsley said at the time.
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Inflows returned to muni mutual funds as investors added $200.3 million for the week ending Wednesday after $1.474 billion of outflows, according to LSEG Lipper.
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Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly nixed another tax cut bill passed by the Republican-led legislature this year, while pushing a less-costly plan.
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It's a big week for the Fortress-backed train company, which refinanced more than $4 billion of debt and broke ground on its West Coast high-speed line.
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Photos from The Bond Buyer's Texas Public Finance conference.
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The Mayo Clinic is undertaking a $5 billion expansion that may bring new debt as it reconstructs its core Rochester, Minnesota campus.
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"Just like the ATM became an additional transaction channel in the banking industry, I believe distributed ledger technology will provide municipal issuers with a similarly valued tool to sell their bonds," said Rick Coscia, Quincy's Strategic Asset Manager.
April 25