Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Bridge funding from a lame-duck Congress could help plug operating deficits and stave off doomsday measures, agency leaders insist.

Analysts, issuers and lawmakers have mixed responses to the closure of the Municipal Liquidity Facility with some saying the move puts the municipal market in a precarious spot as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country.

MTA officials revealed dark budget-and-service cut scenarios and Mayor Bill de Blasio closed in-person public schools, actions likely to ripple through the city's economy.

Neal Zuckerman, a New York MTA board member, tells The Bond Buyer's Paul Burton how takeaways from that era relate to today's transit funding crisis. "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." (24 minutes). Recorded Oct. 30.

The move would not resolve structural budget gaps, according to the rating agency.

New Jersey said it expects to issue up to $4.5 billion of tax-exempt and taxable bonds the week of Nov. 18 under the COVID-19 Emergency Bond Act.

The transit agency — its revenues battered, its credit standing weakened and with no federal rescue aid in sight — looks to borrow its remaining $2.9 billion available through the Municipal Liquidity Facility.

How effectively bus and train operators can serve commuters coming out of the coronavirus pandemic remains a big question.

The two-notch lowering to A-minus precedes the transit agency's planned $258 million negotiated sale of transportation revenue refunding green bonds.

Municipals held firm Friday as the market gets set for another week of hefty supply. Citi anticipates $550 billion in 2021, led by surge in taxable issuance.