Investments

The Investment Company Institute Wednesday reported large inflows into municipal bond mutual funds, with investors adding $2.066 billion to funds, while exchange-traded funds saw $1.082 billion of outflows for the week ending Jan. 10.

Lake Erie College entered into a forbearance agreement with bondholders after the school didn't meet certain covenants it agreed to as part of a debt sale. 

A bill with House and Senate support would change LIHTC bond requirements

Gov. Katie Hobbs' proposed fiscal 2025 budget calls for agency fund sweeps, a new eligibility requirement for a costlier-than-expected universal school voucher program, and other measures to combat a rising shortfall.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's 2023 audited financial statement shows the board collected an additional $19 million in revenue as compared with the 2022.

Increasing the costs for banks to hold municipal bonds would be passed down to cities and states in the form of higher financing costs, industry advocates said.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill amending the state's Local Bond Law to extend the period of usefulness of new emergency equipment from 10 years to 20 years.

"Some have called on us to use our rainy-day fund to cover asylum seeker needs. We do not agree and neither do our city and state comptrollers as well as the bond rating agencies and fiscal experts," said NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

The University of Chicago Harris School's Center for Municipal Finance is joining forces with Investortools to help advance municipal finance knowledge.

The state of Wisconsin is embarking on a flurry of debt-related activity as the year begins, with a cash defeasance and three refunding deals on the table.

Munis have "struggled to get out of starting gate" to start 2024 as munis are returning negative 0.24% so far this year, said Jason Wong, vice president of municipals at AmeriVet Securities.

"I believe policy is set properly," Waller said. "It is restrictive and should continue to put downward pressure on demand to allow us to continue to see moderate inflation readings."

Bonds issued through the Westchester County Local Development Corp. will create a centralized base for the nonprofit's blood distribution and lab operations.

In its take on the governor's proposed budget, the Legislative Analyst's Office lowered its own deficit projection, but called the governor's revenue projections "optimistic."

The 2025 state budget would provided $2.4 billion to New York City to pay for the costs of caring for a rising influx of migrants, which includes taking $500 million from reserves.

The filing cuts the current 15 minutes standard reporting window down to one minute in what the MSRB describes as an effort to improve transparency.

Proceeds from the PMT green bond sale will be used to finance transit and commuter projects that have been approved in the N.Y. MTA's capital programs.

Tourism raised $35.2 billion in taxes in 2022, consisting of $18.9 billion in federal tax revenue, $8.1 billion in state tax revenue and $8.2 billion in local tax receipts, according to a report.

Coolidge joins Oppenheimer from UBS, which closed its public finance business in October.

The tax-exempt market could also see pressure due to "heavy issuance, anemic flows, and rate volatility," according to Barclays PLC.