State of Florida

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. reported that private insurance companies assumed 650,399 policies from the state's last-resort carrier in 2023.

At the ceremony, Patronis announced the State Board of Administration plans to make a sizable new purchase of Israel bonds.

The budget proposal includes $455 million for the Florida Division of Bond Finance to redeem, defease or purchase outstanding state bonds.

The budget proposal keeps $16.3 billion in reserves and pays down an additional $455 million in debt. While providing $1.1 billion in tax relief to residents, the plan is $4.6 billion lower than the current fiscal year's budget.

Florida outpaced the national average in overall labor force gains last month while the state's 2.8% unemployment rate was lower than the nation's 3.9% in October.

Lawmakers are looking for ways to slow the rising cost of property insurance, provide additional relief to victims of Hurricane Idalia, bolster efforts against anti-Semitism and support Israel while targeting Iran.

When set against high-profile public finance projects like American Dream and Legacy Cares, Florida's Brightline marks a rare success for investors.

The private equity firms accused the bank of concealing key changes to a credit agreement, in part because it wanted to win future muni bond business from Brightline Holdings.

Miami-Dade County is fighting Florida lawmakers' latest attempts of a takeover of its expressway authority.

Sunday is the mid-point of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. AccuWeather expects at least one or two more tropical storms or hurricanes to hit hit the U.S.

While Idalia caused major damage to some municipalities, it had less of an impact than feared since it hit less densely populated areas than Hurricane Ian did last year.

Florida led the nation in payroll growth in July, Wells Fargo said in a Friday report, which noted most of the upturn was in the healthcare and professional and the scientific and technical services sectors while leisure and hospitality shed jobs.

The affirmation reflects Florida's "sound financial management practices, high gap-closing capacity and reserves, and low long-term liability," Fitch said.

A $40 billion White House supplemental funding request includes $12 billion for FEMA's disaster relief fund, but critics say it may be safer to consider the measure alone.

"The main climate factors expected to influence the 2023 Atlantic hurricane activity are the ongoing El Nino and the warm phase of the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation, including record-warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures," said NOAA's Matthew Rosencrans.

The bond division undertook two transactions last week to retire outstanding taxable public education capital outlay and state revolving fund bonds. The transactions used $200 million in program funds, along with additional money, to pay down $400 million in state debt.

The Florida Insurance Guaranty Association is getting ready to head back to the market next week with a variable-rate bond deal after successfully selling fixed-rate bonds last week to help fund claims from insolvent insurance companies.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said the state unemployment rate in May was steady at 2.6% for the fifth straight month, the lowest among the 10 largest states in the nation.

"This recent escalation of the Disney-DeSantis fight is unnerving, but it doesn't make that fight any more consequential for the municipal market," said Justin Marlowe of the University of Chicago.

"When the rating agencies developed and rolled out their ESG scores, they said their ESG scores would not impact an issuer's credit rating. We are holding them to their word," said Ben Watkins, director of the state Division of Bond Finance.