City of Houston, TX

Texas, Oklahoma, and other Southwest states would jump on the bitcoin bandwagon amid a nationwide surge in bills to invest public money in cryptocurrencies.

The study comes as the city faces a growing structural budget deficit and shrinking reserves that led to negative bond rating outlooks.

A recent Texas Supreme Court decision will force the city to increase the amount of property tax revenue allocated to a dedicated drainage and street fund.

The deal, which marks the city's largest special facilities revenue bond issuance, will help finance a terminal project at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

As headline risk swirls around the Fed and the transition to the Trump administration, municipals have largely stayed in their own lane. November finds the municipal market "in far better technical shape, with an attractive backdrop through at least year-end," J.P. Morgan's Peter DeGroot said. 

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority's CEO was ousted and its chair faces ouster as it prices a $330 million deal to restructure its bond debt.

The event went on as scheduled Tuesday against a backdrop of escalating conflict between the mayor and controller, with each requesting a probe of the other.

Conference sponsorships targeting bond firms led Mayor John Whitmire to call for a probe into actions by Controller Chris Hollins, who denied any wrongdoing.

Houston and other Texas cities face financial pressure caused by weather disasters, public safety salaries and pensions, or capped property tax collections.

A negative outlook for the city's AA rating by Fitch Ratings follows similar action taken by S&P Global Ratings in July.

The mayor and controller debated the causes for the rating outlook revision to negative from stable ahead of a July city bond sale.

S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook on the city's AA rating to negative from stable, citing increased debt and costs from a settlement with firefighters.

The spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 contains no tax increases or new fees and puts off finding a recurring solution for a structural budget gap.

The bonds are part of a proposed settlement with the city's firefighters union that would need court approval.

The spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would draw down the city's general fund balance to fill a budget gap that has grown to $187 million.

Delivery delays for Boeing planes are impacting airports, with Southwest Airlines recently announcing it is pulling out or reducing flights at some facilities.

As the nation's fourth largest city faces a growing structural budget deficit, it is also expecting to issue more than $3 billion of debt for its airport, water and sewer system, convention center, as well as to fund a settlement with firefighters and for cash-flow purposes.

Under the proposed deal, the city would sell $650 million of judgment bonds to fund back pay for firefighters, whose wages would increase by up to 34% over the life of a new five-year contract.

Funding for a $2.55 billion expansion and renovation of George Bush Intercontinental Airport's Terminal B had been held up for months by the city's former and current controller.

The deal announced by Mayor John Whitmire last week would end an eight-year-long impasse with the firefighters union and require $650 million of judgment bonds.