News and Information from Bond Buyer

Transportation fare and tax revenues lost to the coronavirus can be countered with federal relief funding, says the Illinois Economic Policy Institute.

Officials cited borrowing flexibility before a joint meeting of the transit authority's oversight board and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Sam Turvey of ReThinkNYC explores ways to make New York's Pennsylvania Station complex more functional and aesthetic. Paul Burton hosts (17 minutes).

Municipals continue to outperform Treasuries amid a light holiday-shortened week led by a California tobacco deal.

The bill comes days before the Biden administration will reveal its infrastructure plan. Sources have said municipal bond provisions are likely to be included in an infrastructure package.

Tax-exempt bonds issued for a private hospital system in Honolulu fell further into junk territory with S&P Global Ratings downgrading the bonds to CCC from B-minus.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts said its white paper is a disclosure template for future events such as large-scale tropical storms and wildfires.

A trio of municipal bond analysts say now is the time for investors to take advantage of the strength and resilience of the asset class.

With some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences fund growth with $139 million of revenue bonds.

Bradley Riss is chief commercial officer at Checkout.com, a firm that acts as a payment gateway, acquirer and processor through a single channel, covering cards, passthrough wallets, stored value wallets and alternative payment options such as point of sale credit. It charges a fee based on processing and card payment costs rather than the percentage+ model that most payment API companies charge. The model is designed to make the service customized to different merchants and serve as a base to offer other merchant products.

San Francisco's city attorney had sued to force the school district to resume in-person learning.

Moody’s followed S&P in lifting Illinois’ outlook to stable, where it stood before the COVID-19 pandemic, but a lot more needs to happen for an upgrade.

Both personal income and expenditures dropped in February, while personal consumption expenditures also came in weaker than expected, meaning inflation remains in check for now.

A provision banning the use of federal stimulus money to subsidize tax cuts has stalled business incentive programs, California business lobbyists say.

The Securities and Exchange Commission previously charged one of the seven, an unregistered investment adviser, with similar allegations.

Gov. Tom Wolf said the tax has become unreliable for funding the commonwealth's vast network.

Other detention centers and prisons operating near the U.S.-Mexico border have undergone similar IRS audits the last couple of years in which issuers have agreed to convert their bonds from tax-exempt to taxable.

Jeffrey Fladell, who retired from RBC Capital Markets in 2017, agreed to pay that fine while neither admitting nor denying FINRA's charges.

Moody's is the second rating agency this month to bring its outlook on Illinois to stable, though all ratings remain at the lowest investment grade.

Refinitiv Lipper reported more inflows into municipal bond mutual funds to the tune of $592.4 million. Initial jobless claims fell to the lowest point since the pandemic began, moving Treasuries weaker while equities saw gains.