Climate change

When communities can't access affordable insurance, it can decrease home values, tank municipal bond ratings, and cripple the tax base — and this will only get worse if left unaddressed.

Moody's believes Florida will sell bonds to help replenish the CAT fund this spring.

Oppenheimer's Head of Public Finance Beth Coolidge and Columbus Auditor Megan Kilgore delve into the future of public finance and human infrastructure on a wide range of topics, from affordable housing and workforce development to public health, climate resiliency, and digital access.

In the long run, Helene and Milton may further drive already rising property insurance costs, while in the short-term S&P placed three utilities on CreditWatch.

Local governments that were in Hurricane Milton's path, however, will face significant credit challenges, Moody's said.

MMA says some risky-sector issuers in the area hit hard by the hurricane may be pushed into technical or payment defaults.

Florida's catastrophe fund will weather the storm and shouldn't need reinforcements yet. Two Florida-related sales are still expected next week.

The study also projected a $1.475 trillion loss to productive infrastructure by 2050.

The ratio of local government municipal debt to GDP in aggregate has fallen to around 10% from 20% in 2010.

California and Texas have received the most amount of federal investment to date, according to a pair of reports tracking the climate law's investments.

As extreme weather events occur with more frequency across the country, Michael Gaughan, executive director of the Vermont Bond Bank, says municipal bond banks can help smaller communities deal with the effects of them. Gaughan speaks with The Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk on the effects of climate change and how the various levels of government can work together to address it.

Clyde, Texas, missed payments on certificates of participation due Aug. 1, the same day it declared a water emergency. Bond insurers are paying the holders.

Proposed guidelines for federal tax credits could undermine the effort to build a clean hydrogen market, critics say.

Efforts at every level to respond to the growing problem of extreme heat are beginning to reshape how state and local governments think about emergency management.

Challenges to laws banning investment banks from underwriting municipal bonds and the targeting of other financial firms for divestment purposes may result from a recent Oklahoma ruling.

In Texas, the Austin City Council set a climate bond election for no later than November 2026, while an Arizona water authority is dealing with a funding drought.

The new rule will require FEMA to consider climate change's impact on future flood patterns in determining how and sometimes if to build back after flooding. 

Neither presidential candidate is talking enough about the "unsustainable" U.S. deficit, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said.

FEMA's rule is among the first adopted by a federal agency that will require federally funded projects to be sited and designed with future climate impacts in mind, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

After the west abutment on the Rapidan Dam partially failed last week, it's up to the Blue Earth County board of commissioners to pursue repair or removal.