News and Information from Bond Buyer

The approval clears the way for groundbreaking on a bridge that the two states have been trying to replace for 12 years.

More funding went to oil and gas subsidies than into green energy projects in recent years, according to panelists at Milken Institute's Global Conference.

Charter schools had the most impairments in the past 12 months.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw another week of inflows as investors added $1.053 billion in the week ending Wednesday, the second-largest figure this year.

In a new debt profile report, the Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says the MTA will be pressured if congestion pricing tolls in Manhattan are blocked.

"The Maryland SmartBuy program is designed to help first-time home buyers who have student loan obligations qualify for acquisition financing under the Maryland Mortgage Program," said the CFO of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. 

Even as Florida advances a pair of bills expanding the state's already broad public-private partnership authority, the P3 message from the state's debt office appears less than enthusiastic.

More than $17 billion of general obligation bonds piled onto May 4 election ballots in the state, with voters passing some of the biggest, including Dallas' $1.25 billion, 10-part package.

A $327 million competitive bond deal, including $35 million of taxables, will fund renovations to the stadium and a new football operations building.

The University repriced to lower yields up to 15 basis points Wednesday while Illinois accellerated its pricing of its tax-exempt GOs and were repriced yesterday afternoon with bumps of 10 to 13 basis points and saw $1.5 billion of retail orders alone.

California lawmakers asked the high court to intervene on the measure headed for November's ballot.

Immigration effects in municipalities are seen as pros and cons

A state judge issued a temporary injunction against enforcement of the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, which has led to the ban of seven financial firms, including four big municipal bond underwriters, from government contracts.

"One big challenge is the amount of advocates that we've had in Congress that will be retiring or no longer running for re-election," said SIFMA's Leslie Norwood.

Lawmakers in Illinois have proposed legislation to consolidate the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, Pace and the Regional Transportation Authority.

As we continue to keep an eye out on commercial downtowns around the country, during this discussion we will focus on: Current projections: are people expected to return to offices or that is no longer in the cards?, Impact of vacancies on the property values, Addressing homelessness facing large urban centers, What efforts have been underway to address the current situation impacting commercial space in urban downtowns?

April's "poor performance" pushed munis further into negative territory, but "despite the poor start to the year, they may still end the year positive," said Cooper Howard, a fixed-income strategist at Charles Schwab.

The driving force behind the trend is the overall strength of the economy, according to Fitch Ratings' Michael Rinaldi. Revenue sources for municipalities, such as sales and property taxes, are doing very well. 

Syncora and GoldenTree Asset Management want an accounting of what happened to PREPA net revenues.

The MSRB's move to a one-minute reporting standard was questioned in a House hearing Tuesday in the context of regulation that could go too far.