Northeast

The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company deal, self-designated as green, will finance a soon-to-open 6.9 megawatt, 35-acre solar power project.

Red state-blue state battles have complicated ESG issuance even as the muni market strives to make it an accepted asset class. The Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk, Karen Pierog, Chip Barnett and Keeley Webster discuss how it's playing out nationally and regionally.

Since November, 10-year munis have fallen 130 basis points, according to Refinitiv MMD. This has pushed ratios to near-record lows, said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

Half of the top 10 issuers were new entrants: the California Community Choice Finance Authority, Main Street Natural Gas, the state of Washington, the Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corp. and Illinois.

After this week's sale, the state intends to issue another series of refunding bonds in February in connection with a potential tender offer for taxable GOs and a current refunding of some tax-exempt GOs.

Despite the outperformance this week, and while the asset class had "a stellar December, which rounded out a very solid year," Barclays PLC strategists said the high-grade muni market has become "quite rich."

"The work done by our agency often focuses on the long-term," said Connecticut State Treasurer Erick Russell.

Moody's also affirmed the A1 rating on the authority's $3.2 billion of general revenue bonds and the A2 rating on the $2.5 billion of general revenue junior indebtedness obligations.

"There is no doubt that inflation has had an impact. It's important that we continue to ensure that everyone working in New Jersey has access to a livable wage," said Gov. Phil Murphy.

The muni market saw $379.992 billion of debt issued in 2023, only $11.076 billion less than the lackluster $391.068 billion seen in 2022.