News and Information from Bond Buyer

Government

Michigan lawmakers will spend three days this week debating an 11-bill legislation package outlining the state's role in Detroit's bankruptcy, with emergency manager Kevyn Orr testifying on Tuesday.

Detroit's effort to repay its limited-tax general obligation bondholders only about 10 cents on the dollar would send shock waves through the muni industry and stifle economic growth, SIFMA argued in a court brief filed Monday.

Investors have started looking to bonds with 4% coupons for better priced deals after prices for 5% coupons surged

Kroll Bond Rating Group assigned MBIA's municipal only insurer National Public Finance Guarantee a AA-plus rating Monday afternoon, the highest rating in the insurance industry

Moody's Investors Service has revised its outlook on Iowa-based St. Anthony Regional Hospital's Baa2 rating to negative.

Standard & Poor's dropped Centegra Health System in Illinois' rating by one level to BBB ahead of its nearly $200 million sale of debt through a public offering and direct bank placements.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board got the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission to consolidate muni dealers' existing fair-pricing obligations into a single rule.

Walker County, Ga., officials asked Standard & Poor's to withdraw its ratings after disagreeing with a four-notch downgrade to BBB-plus, the county's investment banker said.

Standard & Poor's put Rhode Island's GO bonds on credit watch negative and threatened a possible multiple-notch downgrade should the state default on 38 Studios debt.

Construction on the $1.8 billion partially bond-financed Iowa Fertilizer Co. project is slightly behind schedule due to the harsh winter but the project is making "timely progress" and commodity price expectations remain on target, according to Fitch Ratings.

Bond lawyers said that there needs to be clarity about the definition of a political subdivision in light of an Internal Revenue Service ruling from last year.

With more than $6.7 billion on local ballots, Texas' largest school bond requests won easy passage May 10.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has released guidance on its new consolidated registration rule, which seeks to streamline the process for municipal advisors as well as broker-dealers.

Puerto Rico's Doral Financial Corp., which ratings agencies believe may be near bankruptcy, is demanding Puerto Rico's Treasury Department pay it $230 million immediately.

The federal government ran a $106.9 billion budget surplus in April, the Treasury reported Monday.

For the third time since 2011, Ohio will be forced to dip into reserves to cover debt-service payments on its Buckeye tobacco securitization bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service has asked some issuers to pay back part of the subsidy payments for their direct-pay bonds because the wrong sequestration reduction rate was used to determine the payment amount, said Rebecca Harrigal, the director of the IRS’ tax-exempt bond office.

Yields on bonds from Puerto Rico's $3.5 billion general obligation issuance in March began rising on Monday.

Frederic "Rick" L. Ballard Jr., who helped transform his great-grandfather's small law office into the national firm of Ballard Spahr with more than 500 lawyers and a sizeable public finance practice, died unexpectedly on Sunday, May 11 at age 72.