News and Information from Bond Buyer

ALASKA

With revenue rising more than 28% in February, Arkansas is on track to a $35.9 million surplus by the end of the fiscal year, state officials said.

Government

The weekly average yield to maturity of The Bond Buyer Municipal Bond Index, which is based on 40 long-term bond prices, was two basis points higher to 4.10% from 4.08% for the previous week.

Detroit Public Schools may run out of funds to meet payroll after April 8, the district’s new transition leader told state lawmakers who are being asked to approve $50 million in emergency aid.

New Jersey Republican State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio is proposing beefing up pension funding in the state’s 2017 budget.

The South Carolina state Senate on Wednesday approved a road bill that would dedicate $400 million a year of recurring revenue to highway upgrades without raising the state’s gasoline tax.

Indiana lawmakers compromised on a $1 billion, two-year road building program that delays decision on long-term transportation funding.

Issuers are not likely to change the Securities and Exchange Commission staff’s minds about the violations they have disclosed under the commission’s municipal self-reporting initiative, the commission’s top cop for municipal securities enforcement said on Thursday.

Top quality municipal bonds finished mostly steady on Thursday, traders said, as Ramirez & Co. priced the New York City Transitional Finance Authority’s $750 million bond deal for retail investors.

For the first time in five years, Florida lawmakers have included bond financing for school projects in their proposed $82.35 billion budget for fiscal 2017.

After a special three-week session ended, Louisiana legislators remained $30 million shy of closing the current-year deficit and $800 million short for fiscal 2017.

Bond lawyers on Thursday criticized the political subdivision rules recently proposed by the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, claiming they would trample states’ rights, alter the landscape for public financing, and jeopardize the tax-exempt status of millions of dollars of municipal bonds.

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said a senior member of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s legislative delegation reaffirmed a commitment to prompt action that would give the commonwealth the tools for a debt restructuring.

Oklahoma will use $78.5 million from its rainy day fund to operate public schools and prisons in the current fiscal year, Gov. Mary Fallin announced.

Indicator Last Report Forecast Actual Initial Claims 2/27: 277,000 3/5: 275,000 3/5: 259,000 Continuing Claims 2/20: 2.257M 2/27: 2.262M 2/27: 2.225M Treasury Budget Jan.: +$55.2B Feb.: -$200.0B Feb.: -$192.6B

The federal government ran a $192.6 billion deficit in February the Treasury Department reported Thursday.

Hawaii next week will sell bonds competitively for the first time in more than a quarter century.

The Treasury Department Thursday auctioned $12 billion of 29-year 11-month bonds with a 2.50% coupon at a 2.720% high yield, a price of 95.513533.

Revised outlooks to negative from two of the four bond rating agencies represent “bittersweet” news for Connecticut, said state Treasurer Denise Nappier.